Why it works: Parsley and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,675 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and poach
Wrap the fish in a cloth and secure it with sewing or pins.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the wrapped fish.
Simmer gently for about 1 hour, or until the fish easily separates from the bone.
Make the sauce and serve
In a separate pot, combine milk, salt, parsley, and flour to create a sauce.
Thicken the sauce to the consistency of drawn butter.
Remove the fish from the cloth, discard the skin, and serve with the sauce.
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.
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Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Fish + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,341 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Milk + parsleytop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,011 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Provides the main protein, which firms and separates into flakes when gently simmered.
- White flour
- Thickens the milk sauce so it coats the fish like drawn butter.
- Milk
- Forms the body of the sauce and adds richness and a mild sweetness.
The step that matters
Simmer gently. A rolling boil toughens fish proteins and can break the flesh apart, while gentle simmering cooks it evenly until it separates easily from the bone.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, milk, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Capersfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, flour. 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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