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Minced Fish

A baked fish dish with mushrooms, milk, butter, flour, and cheese topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Minced Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan.

  2. Add the milk or cream and stir continually until it boils.

  3. Add the mushrooms and their liquid, then pour this mixture over the minced fish and mix carefully.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer everything to a baking dish and grate cheese on top.

  2. Place in a 350°F (175°C) oven and bake until browned.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish and gives it a flaky, substantial texture.
Milk or cream
Provides moisture and forms the creamy sauce that binds the fish and mushrooms.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savory, earthy flavor to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and helping the top brown.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the milk mixture so the sauce holds together rather than running loose.
Cheese
Melts over the top and browns in the oven, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Stirring the milk until it boils. Milk or cream can scorch and stick to the bottom of the pan if left unattended. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly, keeping the sauce smooth and preventing a burnt taste.

“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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