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Boiled White Fish, with Sauce and Sliced Lemon

A boiled whole white fish served with sliced lemon and a sauce of choice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,889 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Boiled White Fish, with Sauce and Sliced Lemon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Cook the fish

  1. Fill a pot with water and add salt.

  2. Bring the water to a boil.

  3. Add the whole white fish and cook until done, about 10-15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Remove the fish and place it on a serving platter.

  2. Serve with sliced lemon and your choice of 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. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,487 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Lemon + saucetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole white fish
Its protein sets as it cooks, turning firm, opaque and flaky in the hot water.

The step that matters

Cooking the fish until done. Fish cooks quickly, and its proteins tighten and squeeze out moisture once overheated, so it turns dry and tough. Checking for doneness early helps keep it moist.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, sauce):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Pumpkinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, sauce. 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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