Name: Fish Pudding
Ingredients: cold mashed potatoes; cold cooked fish; 2 ounces butter; 2 tablespoons milk; ¼ teaspoon salt; ⅛ teaspoon pepper; a pinch of dry mustard; 2 hard-boiled eggs

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Mix equal quantities of cold mashed potatoes and cold cooked fish thoroughly.
Melt 2 ounces of butter in 2 tablespoons of milk and add to the mixture.
Stir in ¼ teaspoon of salt, ⅛ teaspoon of pepper, a pinch of dry mustard, and 2 hard‑boiled eggs cut very small.

Bake

Thoroughly grease a paper bag, place the mixture inside, and cook in a hot oven at 400 °F (200 °C) for 10 minutes.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,340 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold mashed potatoes: Provides the bulk and body that holds the pudding together.
Cold cooked fish: Supplies the main flavour and protein base of the pudding.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, carried in with the warm milk.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add set structure and body as they firm in the heat.

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits better
Asparagusfits better
Chivefits better
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, fish, butter, milk, pepper, 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.