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Creamed Fish

A baked fish dish topped with a creamy sauce and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Creamed Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, cream the flour and butter.

  2. Add the hot milk to the saucepan.

  3. Place the sauce in a double boiler.

  4. Add salt, pepper, onion juice, and bay leaf.

  5. Stir until thickened like cream.

Assemble and bake

  1. Flake some cold fish into the bottom of a baking dish.

  2. Pour half of the sauce over the fish.

  3. Add another layer of fish.

  4. Pour the remaining sauce on top.

  5. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  6. Dot with butter.

  7. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until browned.

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. Flour + buttertop 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).

Flour and butter 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

Cold fish
Forms the bulk of the dish and provides the flaked texture between the sauce layers.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when cooked with the butter.
Hot milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and creaminess.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the sauce and helps the top brown in the oven.
Fine crumbs
Forms a topping that browns and adds a crisp surface over the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce until thickened. Starch in the flour swells as it heats, so the sauce needs steady stirring and gentle heat. Otherwise it can form lumps or scorch.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, milk, flour, onion, butter):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, flour, onion, butter. 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.

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