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Hake with Shrimp Sauce

A baked hake fillet topped with a sauce of butter, flour, milk, anchovy sauce, carmine, cream, capers, and shrimps.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Hake with Shrimp Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Sprinkle the fish with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

  3. Cover the fish with well-buttered paper.

  4. Place the fish in a tin, then set that tin in another tin filled with hot water.

  5. Bake for 10–12 minutes.

Make the shrimp sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt 1 ounce of butter.

  2. Stir in ¾ ounce of flour until well combined.

  3. Gradually add ½ pint of milk and the fish liquor, stirring continuously.

  4. Add anchovy sauce, carmine, 2 tablespoons of cream, and ¾ of the chopped shrimps.

  5. Fry the remaining shrimps in a little butter for 1–2 minutes until warmed through.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the fillets and garnish with capers and sautéed shrimps.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Lemon + caperstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Flour + caperstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,024 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hake fillet
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in a moist, covered bake.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour when melted and used to fry shrimps.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter into a roux that gives the sauce body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it is heated with the roux.
Picked shrimps
Provide the main seafood flavour in the sauce and as a garnish.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Gradually add the milk and fish liquor while stirring continuously. Adding liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed in the butter, which prevents lumps and gives a smooth, well-thickened sauce.

“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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