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Fish Mould

A steamed fish mixture with butter, eggs, breadcrumbs, parsley, and white sauce, served with anchovy sauce and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the breadcrumbs in a little milk, then squeeze dry with a clean towel.

  2. Pound the fish with the melted butter in a bowl.

Mix and steam

  1. Add the breadcrumbs, white sauce, eggs, and seasoning; mix well.

  2. Steam the mixture in a buttered tin for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with anchovy sauce poured over and around the dish.

  2. Garnish with cut lemon and parsley.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when steamed.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, giving the mould a lighter texture.
White sauce
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the fish mixture tender.
Melted butter
Adds fat and moisture, enriching the flavour and softness of the fish.

The step that matters

Steaming the mixture. Steam gently and keep the water from boiling hard so the eggs set evenly. Too much heat can cause the mould to become rough, holey, or watery in texture.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, egg, sauce, milk):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, egg, sauce, milk. 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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