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Cream Fish

A dish of fish simmered in cream or milk and thickened with egg and cornstarch, served over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the creamed fish

  1. Combine the fish, cream (or milk), and butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Mix the egg and cornstarch with a little cold milk until smooth.

  3. Add the egg mixture to the boiling fish mixture and stir well.

Serve

  1. Serve the mixture on toast.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main protein and savory flavor of the dish.
Cream or milk
Supplies liquid, moisture, and richness to form the creamy base.
Egg
Thickens the sauce as it heats and adds richness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot liquid into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture to the boiling liquid. Egg proteins can curdle or scramble when they meet very hot liquid without constant stirring. Stirring well while adding the smooth egg and cornstarch mixture disperses it evenly, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of turning lumpy.

“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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