Why it works: Bread and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,145 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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
Prepare
Weigh the cold fish and flake it into a bowl.
Mix in the bread crumbs, anchovy sauce, cayenne, and salt.
Shape and steam
Pound the mixture well with a little butter and the egg yolk.
Press the mixture into a well-buttered mold.
Cover the mold with a plate and steam for 45 minutes.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,145 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Fish + anchovytop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together615 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Fish + breadtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,661 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + anchovytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,257 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
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Fish + buttertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,432 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cod
- Provides the main body of the dish, flaking into the mould as its base.
- Egg yolk
- Binds the mixture together so it holds its shape when turned out.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together with a softer texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the mixture and keeps it from sticking to the mould.
The step that matters
Pounding the mixture with butter and egg yolk. Thorough pounding evenly distributes the fat and binder through the flaked fish, so the mould sets firm and cohesive rather than crumbly or patchy when steamed.
“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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