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Fish Pudding

A steamed fish pudding made with rock fish, truffles, mushrooms, milk, flour, butter, and cream, served with French potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fish Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil the rock fish until not quite done, then let it cool and remove the skin.

  2. Take the fish from the bones in fine pieces, avoiding mashing.

  3. Peel the truffles and cut the largest ones and mushrooms into rose and star shapes.

  4. Grease a 3-pint fluted pudding mold and arrange the shapes around the mold.

  5. Chop most of the mushrooms finely with a little parsley and mix with the fish.

  6. Cut up the truffles and add them to the sauce.

Make the pudding and gravy

  1. In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Mix the flour and butter together, then pour the boiling milk into the mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture over the fish and season with pepper and salt.

  4. Place the fish in the mold, cover tightly, and steam in a pot of boiling water for 30 minutes.

  5. In another pot, boil the cream and mushroom water.

  6. Mix a tablespoon each of flour and butter, then combine with the boiling cream and mushroom water.

  7. Add the remaining truffles and mushrooms, and let boil for 10-15 minutes, seasoning with pepper and salt.

Serve

  1. Boil the French potatoes in salted water until done, then drain.

  2. To serve, pour the fish pudding onto a platter, arrange the potatoes around it, and serve the gravy in a sauce bowl.

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. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Rock fish
Forms the bulk of the pudding, providing its main body and flaky texture.
Milk
Forms the base of the white sauce that binds the fish into a moist pudding.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a sauce that holds the pudding together.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the roux that thickens the sauce.
Cream
Enriches the gravy, adding body and a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Truffles
Contribute a strong earthy aroma and flavour to the pudding and gravy.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding in a sealed mold. Covering the mold tightly keeps steam trapped so the fish cooks gently and stays moist. Fish is delicate and can dry out or turn tough if the water boils too hard or the mold is left uncovered.

“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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