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Cream Gravy for Baked Fish

A creamy gravy made with cream, hot water, butter, parsley, and fish drippings, served over baked fish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream Gravy for Baked Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. In a saucepan, combine the cream and hot water to prevent curdling.

  2. Stir in the melted butter and chopped parsley.

  3. Heat the mixture in a double boiler until warm.

  4. Add the gravy from the dripping pan and bring to a boil to thicken.

Serve

  1. Pour the gravy over the baked fish.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Cream + parsleytop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,392 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Provides richness and a smooth, creamy body to the sauce.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a silky mouthfeel and rich flavor.
Gravy from the dripping pan
Contributes savory drippings flavor that deepens the sauce.

The step that matters

Bringing the gravy to a boil. Boiling activates the starch that thickens the sauce, but cream can separate or scorch if it boils too hard or sits on direct heat. Keep the heat steady and stir so the sauce thickens smoothly without curdling.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Macefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter. 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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