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Fish Pudding

A baked dish of flaked fish in a creamy sauce topped with cheese and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Pudding

Ingredients

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.

Prepare the fish and sauce

  1. Boil the fish for 15 minutes, then remove and flake it finely.

  2. Make a cream sauce by melting the butter in a saucepan.

  3. Stir in the flour until well mixed, then pour in the cream and stir until thickened.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the flaked fish and cream sauce in a baking dish until full.

  2. Top with grated cheese and bread crumbs.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until brown and serve with additional cream sauce.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main body and flaky texture of the pudding.
Cream
Adds moisture and a smooth, rich texture to the sauce and layers.
Butter
Supplies fat and richness, forming the base of the cream sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cream sauce so it holds between the fish layers.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden topping during baking.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream sauce. Flour must be fully mixed into the melted butter before the cream goes in, and the sauce kept stirring as it heats. Starch needs to be dispersed in fat and heated to thicken evenly; otherwise lumps form or the sauce stays thin.

“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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