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Halibut a LA Creme

A creamy halibut dish with onions, milk or cream, butter, flour, and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Halibut a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the onions.

  2. Butter a good-sized dish.

  3. Flake the boiled halibut or other fish.

Make the cream sauce

  1. Boil the onions in water with mace and parsley.

  2. Add milk or cream, butter, and flour to the boiling onions.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

Assemble

  1. Layer the flaked fish in the dish.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,488 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Milk or cream
Forms the base of the sauce, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a sauce as it cooks with the milk or cream.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce and carries flavour.
Halibut or other fish
Forms the main body of the dish, giving it its flaky texture and flavour.

The step that matters

Add milk or cream, butter, and flour to the boiling onions.. Flour must be fully mixed in and the liquid kept at a boil so it cooks through and thickens evenly; adding it to a simmer or unstirred can leave lumps and a raw floury taste.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

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

  1. Capersbetter flavor fit
  2. Thymebetter flavor fit
  3. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

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