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Cream of Fish Soup

A creamy soup made with minced fish, onion, milk, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream of Fish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove bones, fat, and skin from the fish and mince it finely.

  2. Season the minced fish with salt.

Make the broth

  1. Boil sliced onion in 2 cups of water.

  2. Set the onion aside.

Make the soup

  1. Heat 1 cup of milk with a pinch of baking soda.

  2. Stir 1 tablespoon butter, rubbed smooth with 1 teaspoon flour, into the boiling milk.

  3. Add soaked bread crumbs and mix well over heat.

  4. Incorporate whipped raw egg into the mixture.

  5. Pour boiling fish and onion water into the mixture while stirring continuously. Mix thoroughly.

  6. 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Fish + buttertop 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

Cold cooked fish
Provides the main body and flavour of the soup as minced fish.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that gives the soup its smooth, rich texture.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in milk, they thicken the soup and add body.
Raw egg
Sets with heat and helps thicken and enrich the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture so the soup becomes smooth and creamy.

The step that matters

Adding the egg. Whipped raw egg must be incorporated into the hot mixture while stirring so it thickens gently without scrambling into lumps. Adding it too fast or to a boiling base can curdle it.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, butter, flour, bread, 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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