Why it works: Fish and cream work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 937 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
To Boil Fish
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Wrap the fish in a clean bag or cloth.
Place the bag in boiling water and let it boil for 30 minutes.
If desired, pour cream gravy or drawn butter over the fish before serving.
For best flavor, salt the fish by soaking it in salted water overnight or for 1 hour before cooking.
Drain the fish from the salted water or sprinkle salt over it if not soaked.
Place the fish in a clean baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Pour 1 cup of creamy milk over the fish and return it to the oven for a few minutes.
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.
-
Fish + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
More boiled fish recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Fried Fish120 recipes
Fish Croquettes81 recipes
Scalloped Cod69 recipes
Broiled Fish68 recipes