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To Boil Fish No. 1

A method for boiling a cleaned fish with salt, optional saltpetre, vinegar, and garnishes of parsley and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Boil Fish No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the fish thoroughly inside and out and wipe dry with a clean cloth.

  2. Trim the fins close to the body with scissors.

Boil

  1. In a kettle, bring enough water to a boil to cover the fish entirely and add salt.

  2. When the water is boiling, place the fish on a drainer and set it in the kettle.

  3. Boil large, thick fish for 8 minutes per pound and small, thin fish for 5 minutes per pound, counting from when the water resumes boiling.

  4. Add a little vinegar to the water if desired.

Serve

  1. When done, lift out the drainer, let the fish drain, and serve on a folded napkin garnished with parsley and sliced lemon.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

  4. Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,341 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Is the main ingredient that is cooked whole in the simmering water.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the cooking water and the fish.

The step that matters

Timing the boil by weight and thickness. Cooking time depends on the fish's weight and thickness. Boiling too long toughens the flesh and makes it dry and flaky, while too short leaves the center underdone.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, vinegar, lemon):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, vinegar, lemon. 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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