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Boiled Fish

A whole fish is boiled in salted water, served with butter, eggs, parsley, lemon, and optional ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Boiled Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Weigh the fish and wrap it carefully in thin muslin or cheese-cloth.

  2. Fill a large kettle with water and add enough coarse sea salt to taste.

Boil and cook

  1. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat slightly before adding the fish.

  2. For large fish, add 3 tablespoons of vinegar to the water.

  3. Keep the water boiling and cook the fish for 6 minutes per pound, plus an additional 6 minutes for large fish.

  4. Avoid piercing the fish to check for doneness; ensure the water remains at a steady boil.

  5. If the water boils too vigorously, move the kettle to a cooler part of the stove.

Serve

  1. Serve the fish with drawn butter, sliced hard-boiled eggs, parsley, and lemon slices. Optionally, add tomato ketchup.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  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

Whole fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently by poaching in the water.
Vinegar
Added to the water for large fish; its acidity helps the fish hold together while cooking.
Drawn butter
Adds richness and moisture to the fish when served.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and a soft, creamy texture alongside the fish.

The step that matters

Keep the water at a steady boil without piercing the fish. Piercing the fish lets out juices and can cause it to break apart, and a vigorous boil can toughen and tear the flesh. Holding a steady boil cooks it evenly while keeping it intact.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, cheese, vinegar, butter, egg, parsley, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, cheese, vinegar, butter, egg, parsley, lemon. 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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