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Quenelles of Fish

Quenelles of fish are small fish dumplings poached in milk.

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

Quenelles of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the fish through a fine sieve.

  2. Season with pepper and salt.

  3. Add the egg and shape the mixture between two greased spoons.

Poach

  1. Drop the shaped fish into a pan of boiling milk.

  2. Cover the pan with greased paper and poach 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.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main body of the quenelles, and its proteins set with heat to hold the shape.
Egg
Binds the fish mixture so it holds together while poaching and sets as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
Milk
Serves as the poaching liquid, gently cooking the quenelles and adding moisture.

The step that matters

Poach covered for 10 minutes. Heat sets the egg and fish proteins, so the quenelles firm up as they cook. Overcooking or a rough boil can toughen them or break them apart, so keep the poaching gentle and timed.

“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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