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Trout in White Sauce

A trout simmered in water and white wine, served in a sauce of butter, flour, eggs, and cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Trout in White Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the trout

  1. Boil the trout gently in equal parts water and light white wine until just covered.

  2. Keep the fish hot after cooking.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pan, boil the cooking liquid with butter and flour.

  2. Beat the eggs with cold water in a bowl.

  3. Pour the egg mixture and sauce back and forth above the stove until thickened.

Serve

  1. Serve the trout in the sauce, adding salt to taste.

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. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. White wine + flourtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,082 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Trout
Is the main protein, cooked gently in the poaching liquid until just done.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a sauce as it boils with the butter.
Eggs
Enrich the sauce and thicken it gently when combined and heated.
Light white wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the poaching liquid that flavours the fish and sauce.

The step that matters

Pour the egg mixture and sauce back and forth above the stove until thickened. Egg proteins set when heated, so overheating or pouring slowly over direct heat can scramble the eggs. Moving the mixture between containers above the stove cools it evenly while it thickens smoothly.

“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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