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Cream of Fish Soup

A soup made from boiled fish remnants, water, milk, flour, butter, parsley, onion, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Fish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Cover the fish remnants and bones with 1 quart of water.

  2. Add parsley and onion.

  3. Cook slowly.

  4. Drain the mixture.

  5. Return the liquid to the stove.

Finish the soup

  1. Thicken 1 pint of milk with 2 tablespoons of flour and 1 tablespoon of butter.

  2. Add the thickened mixture to the liquid.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Serve.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish remnants and bones
Give the broth its main fish flavor.
Milk
Makes the soup creamy and mellow in texture.
Flour
Thickens the milk so the soup body becomes smooth and creamy.
Butter
Adds richness and helps form the flour-thickened base.

The step that matters

Thicken the milk with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked into the butter and milk to avoid lumps and a raw starchy taste. Stirring the mixture smoothly while it heats lets the starch swell evenly and thicken the soup properly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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