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Catfish Soup

A soup made with catfish, bacon, onion, parsley, egg yolk mixture, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Catfish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean the catfish, remove the heads, and skin them.

  2. Cut the catfish into 3 pieces and place them in a soup kettle.

Cook the soup

  1. Add the bacon, onion, parsley, salt, and enough water to cover the fish.

  2. Cook until the fish are tender but not broken.

Finish the soup

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, butter, flour, and milk.

  2. Add this mixture to the soup and stir well.

  3. Season with pepper if desired.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Catfish
Provides the main protein and flaky texture once cooked gently until tender.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky, savory flavor to the broth.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the broth, giving it body and a smooth, creamy texture.
Flour
Thickens the liquid with the butter and milk, giving the soup a fuller body.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the broth's savory edge.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk mixture. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if the soup is boiling when they go in. Stirring well and keeping the soup at a gentle heat helps the mixture blend smoothly and thicken evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (catfish, parsley, egg, butter, flour, milk, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against catfish, parsley, egg, butter, flour, milk, pepper. 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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