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Steamed Fish

A fish is marinated in vinegar, pepper, and sea salt, then steamed until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Steamed Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Insert the tail of the fish into its mouth to form a circle.

  2. Pour over the fish ½ pint of vinegar seasoned with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Let it stand for 1 hour in a cool place.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour off the vinegar and place the fish in a steamer over boiling water.

  2. Steam for 20 minutes, or longer for larger fish, until the meat easily separates from the bone.

  3. Drain well and serve on a clean white napkin, neatly folded on a platter.

  4. Decorate the napkin with sprigs of curled parsley or fanciful beet cuttings.

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. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  2. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

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

  3. Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it steams and separates from the bone.
Vinegar
Acidity penetrates the flesh during the standing time, seasoning it and firming its texture.

The step that matters

Steam until the meat easily separates from the bone. Steaming for too short a time leaves the flesh firm and attached to the bone. Larger fish need longer, so checking that the meat flakes away from the bone shows when the fish is cooked through.

“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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