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Fish Pudding

A steamed fish pudding made with fish, breadcrumbs, butter, egg, milk, parsley, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove skin and bones from the fish.

  2. Pound the fish with the butter, breadcrumbs, egg, parsley, and milk until well combined.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Steam

  1. Transfer the mixture to a small, well-greased pudding basin.

  2. Cover with buttered paper and place in a saucepan.

  3. Steam for one hour.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  4. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

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 pudding, giving it its flavour and substance.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and help the pudding hold together with a soft, light texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender as it steams.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set firm when heated.
Milk or fish stock
Adds moisture so the mixture stays soft and easy to spoon.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. Steam must be kept gently and steadily at a simmer. Strong boiling can make the egg set too quickly and leave the texture rough or watery. The paper cover keeps condensation from dripping into the basin.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, egg, milk, pepper):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Cinnamonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, egg, milk, pepper. 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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