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Cream Gravy for Baked Fish

A creamy gravy made with cream, butter, parsley, and fish drippings, served over baked fish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream Gravy for Baked Fish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine 1 cup of cream with a few spoonfuls of hot water.

  2. Stir in 2 tablespoons of melted butter and a little chopped parsley.

  3. Heat the mixture in a vessel filled with hot water.

  4. Pour in the gravy from the dripping pan of the fish.

  5. Boil until thick.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Parsley + fishtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,341 recipes

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

  5. Cream + fishtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together937 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Provides richness and body, thickening into a smooth, creamy gravy.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a silky mouthfeel and rich flavour.
Gravy from the dripping pan
Adds concentrated savoury flavour from the cooked fish drippings.

The step that matters

Boil until thick. Cream thickens as its water evaporates and its proteins and fat set into a body. Boil gently and stir, since cream can scorch or separate if it boils too hard on the base of the pan.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, fish):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, fish. 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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