Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,122 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Fish a LA Creme
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Boil 1 pint of sweet milk.
Rub together 1 oz of butter and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, then stir into the boiling milk.
Add 1 teaspoon of onion juice and a little chopped parsley, and let boil for 2-3 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the well-beaten yolks of 2 eggs, then strain the mixture.
Season with salt and pepper.
Assemble and bake
In a deep dish, layer sauce, then a thick layer of cold, boiled or baked fish chopped fine, followed by more sauce and fish until full.
Top with sauce, sprinkle with grated bread crumbs, and brown in the oven.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the fish together.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and further thicken the sauce, giving it a creamy texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, smoothing the sauce's flavour and mouthfeel.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the base of the sauce, which sets into a creamy binding.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned topping when baked.
The step that matters
Stir the yolks in off the heat. Egg yolks can curdle and turn grainy if they reach boiling point, so they should be stirred into the sauce after it is removed from the heat.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, parsley, egg, pepper, bread):
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Asparagusbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, parsley, egg, pepper, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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