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Boiled White Fish

A boiled whole white fish served with drawn butter, parsley, and egg sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Boiled White Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Dress the fish nicely.

  2. Cover the fish in a fish kettle with boiling water seasoned with coarse sea salt.

  3. Remove the scum as it rises.

  4. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes per pound.

  5. Add vinegar or lemon juice when about half done.

Drain and serve

  1. Take out the fish. Drain.

  2. Dish carefully.

  3. Pour drawn butter over the fish.

  4. Garnish with parsley sprigs.

  5. Serve with egg sauce.

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

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

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

White fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently to a flaky, moist texture.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the mild fish.
Drawn butter
Adds richness and fat that complements the mild, lean fish.

The step that matters

Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes per pound. Simmering rather than boiling keeps the fish tender and prevents it from breaking apart. Overcooking toughens the proteins and dries the flesh, so timing per pound matters.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, vinegar, butter, egg, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, vinegar, butter, egg, sauce. 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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