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Stock Fish

A baked fish mixture of stock fish, bacon, eggs, spices, cream, flour, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Stock Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the stock fish in a mortar with grated bacon, yolks of eggs, and spices until well combined.

  2. Mix the fish mixture into a little cream, flour, and butter until it thickens like a pudding.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the mixture in a deep rice or potato border, or mix it with either.

  2. Wash the top with egg yolk and brown it in the oven.

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Stock fish
Forms the main body of the dish and gives it its savoury flavour.
Grated bacon
Adds fat and salty, savoury flavour to the fish mixture.
Yolks of eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the mixture into a pudding-like texture.
Flour
Thickens the mixture so it holds its shape rather than running.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Mix the fish mixture into the cream, flour, and butter until it thickens. The mixture must thicken to a pudding-like consistency before it is shaped. Flour thickens as its starch swells with heat and liquid, so undercooking or adding too little flour leaves it loose and unable to hold its shape in the border.

“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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