Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Fish Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cream the butter in a mixing bowl.
Add the eggs, nutmeg, salt, parsley, bread crumbs, codfish or salmon, and lemon juice, then mix well.
Steam and serve
Transfer the mixture to a greased steaming dish.
Steam for 1¼ to 1½ hours.
Serve with a butter sauce made from soup stock.
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.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,062 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender, moist texture to the pudding.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set during steaming to give the pudding its structure.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and add body, keeping the pudding soft rather than dense.
- Codfish or salmon
- Provides the main flavour and bulk of the pudding.
The step that matters
Steam for 1¼ to 1½ hours. Steaming gently and for the full time lets the egg proteins set evenly throughout. Too little time leaves the centre loose, while overheating can make the eggs curdle and the texture rubbery.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, parsley, bread, salmon, lemon):
- Capersfits better
- Dillfits about as well
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, parsley, bread, salmon, lemon. 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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