Why it works: Butter and egg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 118,511 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fish
Soak the cleaned fish in cold water with coarse sea salt.
Heat slowly and let it simmer until cooked through.
Remove the fish from the water.
Take out the bones.
Place the fish on a serving dish.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, combine cream and milk.
Mix flour with butter and stir the mixture into the milk just before it boils.
Add parsley, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and lemon juice to the sauce.
Strain the sauce through a sieve.
Pour the strained sauce over the fish.
Top and bake
Beat the egg whites with a little salt and lemon juice.
Spread the beaten egg whites over the fish.
Place in the oven at 400°F (200°C) to brown lightly.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Butter + eggtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together118,511 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,062 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Cream + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently until it flakes and is tender.
- Cream
- Adds richness and body, giving the sauce a smooth, velvety texture.
- Milk
- Thins the cream into a pourable sauce base with a lighter flavor.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce when cooked with butter, giving it a smooth consistency.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor, and combines with flour to form a thickening roux.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a foam that sets and browns on top of the fish in the oven.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour-butter mixture into the milk just before it boils. Adding the thickener to hot liquid without stirring can cause lumps, and a sauce that boils too hard can break or scorch. Stirring steadily as it heats keeps the sauce smooth.
Flavor stand-ins for the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, cream, milk, flour, butter, nutmeg, pepper):
- Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
- Maceabout as good a flavor fit
- Cardamomabout as good a flavor fit
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, cream, milk, flour, butter, nutmeg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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