Why it works: Fish and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,036 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓
Fish Cookery
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Place the fish on a fish strainer.
Cover it with a cloth or piece of muslin to prevent scum from settling.
Boil and simmer
Immerse the fish in boiling water with salt and vinegar added for 3 minutes to set the albumen.
Reduce heat.
Simmer gently until cooked, allowing 6 minutes per pound plus an additional 6 minutes.
Check for doneness; the fish should be opaque and easily pull away from the bone.
For salt fish, soak in lukewarm water to draw out some salt.
Simmer salt fish until tender.
For mackerel, use lukewarm water to prevent breaking the tender skin.
Finish and serve
Once cooked, remove the cloth and drain the fish on a strainer.
Cover with a hot cover for a few minutes before serving.
Garnish tastefully.
Serve with an appropriate sauce.
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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Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,036 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Is the main component cooked gently by simmering in water until opaque and flaky.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the fish and, with the vinegar, helps set the albumen during the initial boil.
- Vinegar
- Acidity in the poaching water helps firm the proteins at the surface, setting the albumen.
The step that matters
Immersing the fish in boiling water for 3 minutes. Plunging the fish into boiling liquid firms the surface proteins, setting the albumen so it stays clean and does not break up. Starting in cold or gently warm water instead would let the albumen leak and cloud the broth.
“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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