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Fish Moulds

A steamed fish dish mixed with breadcrumbs, suet, egg, milk, and seasonings, served with parsley or egg sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Moulds

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the raw fish into small pieces.

  2. Mix all ingredients together.

  3. Steam for about 1 hour.

  4. Turn out and coat with either parsley or egg sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Haddock
Forms the main body of the mould, providing the flaky texture of the dish.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help bind the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and tender during steaming.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set firm as it steams.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture stays soft rather than dry.

The step that matters

Steam for about 1 hour. Steaming gently cooks the egg and fish proteins so the mixture sets. Too little time leaves it soft and loose, and too much heat can make it rubbery or dry.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, bread, egg, milk, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits less well
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, bread, egg, milk, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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