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Cusk a LA Creme

A baked cusk fillet served in a creamy sauce with lemon, onion, parsley, nutmeg, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,036 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Poach the fish

  1. Rub the rock fish well with coarse sea salt.

  2. Place the fish in a kettle and cover it with boiling water.

  3. Once it boils, reduce to a simmer and let it cook for 1 hour.

  4. Remove the fish and carefully draw out all the bones.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, mix 1 ounce of flour with 1 quart of cream until smooth.

  2. Add the lemon juice, chopped onion, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

  3. Heat the mixture until it thickens, then stir in ¼ pound of butter.

  4. Strain the sauce through a sieve.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour a little sauce on a serving dish, place the fish on top, and cover with the remaining sauce.

  2. Beat the egg whites to a froth and spread over the dish.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes, until lightly colored.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Rock fish
Forms the main body of the dish, carrying the sauce and topping.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a smooth sauce that coats the fish.
Cream
Forms the rich base of the sauce, giving body and a smooth texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping give the sauce a smooth, glossy finish.
Egg whites
Whipped to a froth, they set and lightly brown into a airy topping in the oven.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich cream sauce.

The step that matters

Heating the sauce until it thickens. Flour must be heated long enough to cook out its raw taste and reach full thickening power. Heat too little and the sauce stays thin; stirring constantly prevents lumps and scorching on the pan base.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, flour, cream, lemon, parsley, nutmeg, pepper):

  1. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, cream, lemon, parsley, nutmeg, pepper. 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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