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Fish Souffle

A baked fish souffle made with white sauce, shredded fish, and beaten egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Souffle

Ingredients

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.

Make the base

  1. Make a white sauce by melting the butter, adding flour, and gradually whisking in the milk until thickened.

  2. Cool the sauce and then stir in the shredded fish.

Fold and bake

  1. Separate the yolk and white of the egg; beat both until light.

  2. Add the yolk to the fish mixture, then gently fold in the beaten egg white.

  3. Pour the mixture into a patty dish placed in a pan of water.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes or until puffed and brown.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
The beaten white gives the souffle its light, airy lift as it bakes.
Butter
Fat that combines with flour to form the roux that thickens the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a white sauce that gives the souffle its body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, adding moisture and softness.
Shredded fish
Provides the main flavor and body of the souffle mixture.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg white. Stirring instead of folding deflates the air bubbles in the whipped white, so the souffle will not puff well in the oven. Fold gently and keep the mixture airy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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