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Cream Fish

A baked fish dish with a creamy sauce made from milk, butter, and flour, topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Cream Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil the fish in salted water for about 20 minutes.

  2. Remove the skin and flake the fish, discarding the bones.

Make the sauce

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Mix the butter and flour together, then gradually stir in the hot milk.

  3. Add parsley, chopped onion, salt, and pepper to the mixture.

  4. Stir on the stove until the sauce thickens.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a deep dish and layer in the flaked fish and sauce until all ingredients are used, with sauce on top.

  2. Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs and a little butter.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

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

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 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

Fish
Forms the bulk of the dish, providing the flaked meat that the sauce coats.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it body and a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and with the flour forms the roux that thickens the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce by swelling as it cooks with the butter.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping when baked over the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce until it thickens. Flour must be fully cooked in the hot milk and fat to thicken smoothly and lose its raw taste. Adding hot milk gradually and stirring constantly prevents lumps from forming.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, butter, egg, flour, parsley, 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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