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Eish a LA Ceeme

A boiled fish served with a lemon‑onion sauce and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,036 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Poach the fish

  1. Rub the fish with coarse sea salt.

  2. Place the salted fish in a kettle with enough boiling water to cover it.

  3. Reduce the heat after the water boils.

  4. Let the fish simmer for 1 hour.

  5. Remove the fish from the kettle.

  6. Take out all the bones.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, mix 1 ounce of flour with 1 quart of cream or new milk until smooth.

  2. Add the juice of 1 lemon, chopped onion, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

  3. Heat the mixture.

  4. Stir until it thickens.

  5. Stir in ¼ pound of butter.

  6. Strain the sauce through a sieve.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place a little sauce on a dish.

  2. Lay the fish on top of the sauce.

  3. Pour the remaining sauce over the fish.

  4. Beat the whites of 6 eggs until frothy.

  5. Spread the frothy egg whites over the fish.

  6. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes or until light brown.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Firm salt water fish
Forms the main body of the dish, holding its shape through poaching and baking.
Flour
Thickens the cream or milk into a smooth sauce as it heats.
Cream or new milk
Provides the liquid base and richness of the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smoother, silkier finish.
Whites of 6 eggs
Whipped to a froth, they set and brown on top when baked.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich cream sauce.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until frothy. Egg whites must be beaten to a light foam so they trap air and set into a delicate, lightly browned topping rather than a dense layer.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, flour, cream, lemon, parsley, nutmeg, pepper):

  1. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, cream, lemon, parsley, nutmeg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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