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A Fish Pudding

A fish pudding made by pounding fish with broth, butter, bread crumbs, egg yolks, and folded with egg whites, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

A Fish Pudding

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.

Prepare the base

  1. Pound the cold fish in a mortar with a few spoonfuls of broth until it forms a paste.

  2. Add the butter and grated bread crumbs, then mix in the beaten egg yolks.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a basin.

Bake

  1. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a souffle dish or mold and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until set.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help bind it as it sets.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they lighten the pudding and help it rise.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and a soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist texture.
Cold fish
Provides the main flavor and protein that sets into the pudding.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air when beaten. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the pudding will bake denser and rise less.

“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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