Skip to main content
Main

Fish

A fish dish simmered in milk, thickened with flour or corn‑starch, finished with butter and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash the fish and tear it into bits.

  2. Soak the fish in cold water overnight.

  3. In the morning, drain the water and place the fish in a frying pan, covering it with fresh cold water.

  4. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Make the milk sauce

  1. Drain the fish and place it in a double boiler with the milk, or carefully pour the milk over the fish in the pan while stirring constantly.

  2. Once the milk is boiling, stir in the flour and butter (or wet corn-starch with a little cold milk).

  3. Cook slowly for 5 minutes, season with pepper and salt if needed.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg mixed with 1 tablespoon of milk.

  5. Let it stand for 2 minutes and serve on a hot platter.

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

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

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Forms the main body of the dish, flaking into tender pieces after simmering.
Milk
Provides the liquid base of the sauce and carries the flavour of the dish.
Egg
Thickens the sauce gently and adds richness when stirred in off the heat.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth flavour to the sauce.
Flour or corn-starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it cooks.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg in off the heat. Egg proteins set at high heat and can curdle or scramble in hot liquid. Removing the pan from the heat before adding the beaten egg lets it thicken the sauce smoothly.

“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.

More fish in milk recipes

Baked 3 See all 6 →

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipesBroiled FishBroiled Fish68 recipes