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Light Fish Pudding

A steamed fish pudding made with cooked fish, bread crumbs, egg, spices, and milk or stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Light Fish Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop and warm the fish in butter.

  2. Soak the bread crumbs in milk or veal stock.

  3. Add the soaked bread crumbs to the fish.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, mace, and nutmeg.

  5. Stir in the beaten egg.

Cook and serve

  1. Steam in a mold for one hour.

  2. Serve with a little white 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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  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

Cooked fish
Forms the main body of the pudding and gives it its flavor.
Bread crumbs
Soak up liquid and help the pudding hold a soft, moist texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it sets firm when steamed.
Milk or veal stock
Adds moisture and softens the bread crumbs for an even texture.

The step that matters

Steam in a mold for one hour. Steaming gently sets the egg-bound mixture through without drying it out. Too much heat can cause the egg to curdle and turn the pudding rubbery or watery.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

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