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Fish Cream

A steamed fish custard made with whiting, cream, eggs, and white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Whiting and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Make a panada by melting the butter, then whisking in the flour and fish stock until smooth.

  2. Add the sieved fish, salt, pepper, cayenne, beaten eggs, and whisked cream to the panada.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into well-buttered molds.

  2. Steam gently until firm.

  3. Coat with white sauce before serving.

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. Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Whiting + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Whiting
Provides the main body and delicate flavour of the custard once cooked.
Eggs
Set when heated, binding the fish and cream into a firm, sliceable custard.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the custard soft rather than dry.
Flour
Forms a panada with the butter and stock, helping thicken the mixture and stabilise it.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the panada and helps prevent sticking in the molds.

The step that matters

Steam gently until firm. High heat or boiling water can make egg-based custards curdle, spongy or full of holes. Gentle steam lets the eggs set evenly into a smooth, firm texture.

“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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