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Cat-fish Soup

A soup made with catfish, onion, milk, butter, and seasonings, served with lemon and oyster crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cat-fish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Skin the catfish, remove the heads, and cut them into pieces.

  2. In a pot, combine the fish, onion, and cold water. Boil until the fish falls apart.

  3. Strain the mixture and return the liquid to the pot.

  4. Add the corn starch mixture and stir until thickened.

  5. Add the butter gradually, one teaspoon at a time, stirring well.

  6. Season with salt, pepper, celery, and anchovy sauce.

Finish and serve

  1. In a separate pot, heat the milk with the beaten eggs and parsley for one minute.

  2. Add the milk mixture to the hot soup, stir well, and serve.

  3. Garnish with sliced lemon and serve with oyster crackers.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Catfish + saucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Corn + celerytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together920 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Catfish
Provides the main body and flavor of the soup as it breaks down in the broth.
Corn starch
Thickens the broth into a smooth, lightly body-filled soup when heated.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the flavor of the broth.
Eggs
Enrich the soup and add body as they gently set in the hot milk mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and egg mixture to the soup. Eggs set when they get too hot and can curdle or turn grainy. Stirring the milk-egg mixture well and adding it to hot soup gradually keeps the eggs smooth and evenly blended.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (catfish, onion, milk, butter, corn, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against catfish, onion, milk, butter, corn, anchovy, sauce. 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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