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Catfish Soup

A soup made from catfish, ham or salt pork, water, milk, egg, cornstarch, and seasoned with pepper and sea salt.

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

Catfish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the catfish into squares.

  2. In a pot, combine the catfish, ham or salt pork, and cold water.

  3. Cook until the fish is in shreds.

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

Finish the soup

  1. Dissolve the cornstarch in the milk and beaten egg.

  2. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the soup and let it boil for three minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and pour into a tureen.

Serve

  1. Serve with anchovy sauce and toasted bread.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 of the soup as flesh that breaks into shreds during cooking.
Cornstarch
Thickens the soup as it boils, giving it a smoother, more body-filled texture.
Egg
Adds richness and helps thicken and enrich the liquid when stirred in.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the broth, mellowing its flavor.
Ham or salt pork
Lends savory, salty fat and smoky flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the cornstarch mixture to the soup. Cornstarch must be fully dissolved in the cold milk and egg before it goes into the hot soup, or it will clump. It thickens as it boils, so the soup should be kept at a boil for the full three minutes to set the starch properly.

“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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