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Boiled Bass

A whole bass is boiled with vinegar, salt, onion, peppercorns, mace, and served with drawn butter and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Boiled Bass

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the poaching liquid

  1. Fill a pot with enough water for the fish to swim easily.

  2. Add vinegar, salt, onion, black peppercorns, and mace.

Cook the fish

  1. Sew the fish in a piece of clean net, fitted to its shape.

  2. Heat the pot slowly for the first 30 minutes.

  3. Boil the fish for at least 8 minutes per pound at a fast boil.

Serve

  1. Unwrap the fish and pour over it drawn butter mixed with the boiling liquid and lemon juice.

  2. Garnish with 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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the poaching liquid and the fish.
Drawn butter
Adds richness and fat that gives the finished fish a smooth, moist mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that cuts the richness of the butter and balances the flavor.

The step that matters

Boil the fish at a fast boil for the full time. Fish proteins set and turn opaque as they heat, so the fish needs enough time in hot liquid to cook through. Heating slowly first lets the fish warm evenly before the faster boil.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, vinegar, onion, butter, 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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