Name: Whitefish Steamed
Ingredients: 1 whole whitefish; coarse sea salt; ½ cup butter; 2 tablespoons flour; 1 pint boiling water; 2 hard-boiled eggs

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Whitefish Steamed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

Clean the fish and salt it.

Steam

Wrap the fish in a clean white cloth and steam for 1 hour.

Make the dressing

In a bowl, cream together the butter and flour.
Pour in the boiling water and bring to a boil.
Stir in the chopped hard-boiled eggs.

Serve

Pour the dressing over the fish and serve.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Whitefish + flourtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together55 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Whitefish + buttertop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the dressing a smooth, rounded texture.
Flour: Thickens the butter and boiling water into a dressing that clings to the fish.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add body and a mild, savoury flavour to the dressing.

“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.