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Fish a LA Ceeme

Baked fish served with a lemon‑onion cream sauce and topped with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,855 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. 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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Poach the fish

  1. Rub the fish with coarse sea salt.

  2. Place the fish in a kettle with enough boiling water to cover it.

  3. Once the water boils, reduce the heat.

  4. Let it simmer for 1 hour.

  5. Remove the fish.

  6. Carefully take out all the bones.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, mix 1 ounce of flour with 1 quart of cream or milk until smooth.

  2. Add the juice of 1 lemon, chopped onion, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cook the mixture over heat, stirring until it thickens.

  4. Stir in ¼ pound of butter.

  5. Strain the sauce through a sieve.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place a little sauce on a dish.

  2. Lay the fish on top.

  3. Pour the remaining sauce over it.

  4. Beat the egg whites to a froth.

  5. Spread them over the fish.

  6. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes or until light brown.

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. Fish + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,855 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten whites form a light foam that sets and browns over the fish when baked.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Cream or milk
Forms the base of the sauce, adding richness and body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the finished sauce.
Firm saltwater fish
Forms the main body of the dish, gently cooked by simmering until flaky.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to a froth. Whites must be beaten until foamy so they hold air and set into a light, browned topping; underbeaten or greasy whites stay runny and won't brown well.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, flour, cream, lemon, parsley, nutmeg, pepper):

  1. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, cream, lemon, parsley, 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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