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Cabillaud a LA Sauce Hollandaise

Poached cod fillet topped with a lemon‑yolk Hollandaise sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Cabillaud a LA Sauce Hollandaise

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.

Poach the cod

  1. Poach the cod fillet in simmering water until cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Make the Hollandaise

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.

  2. In a bowl, whisk together egg yolks, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

  3. Gradually add the melted butter to the egg mixture while whisking continuously until thickened.

Serve

  1. Serve the poached cod topped with the Hollandaise 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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + white peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Egg + white peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Cod fillet
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through gently in simmering water.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce once melted in.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the melted butter and thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and egg sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the melted butter to the yolks. Butter must be added slowly while whisking so the yolks can emulsify it. Adding it too fast, or letting the mixture get too hot, can split the sauce or scramble the yolks.

Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  3. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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