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Sauce

White Sauce for Fish

A simple white sauce made with fish stock, milk, cloves, bay leaves, onion, peppercorns, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,901 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

White Sauce for Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. In a saucepan, combine the water from the boiled fish and milk.

  2. Add cloves, bay leaves, onion, peppercorns, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Strain the sauce to remove solids before serving.

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. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Milk + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Fish + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,924 recipes

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

  5. Milk + oniontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the creamy base of the sauce and gives it body and a mild sweetness.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the infused liquid.
Bay leaves
Contribute a subtle aroma that flavors the simmering milk.

The step that matters

Simmering the milk. Milk can scorch or boil over if heated too fast on the bottom of the pan. Bringing it to a boil and then lowering the heat keeps it from sticking and lets the aromatics infuse gently.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, onion. 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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