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Pomfret Fillets

Pomfret fillets rolled with onion, parsley, mushroom trimmings, simmered in broth, served with mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Pomfret Fillets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fillets

  1. Divide the pomfrets into fillets.

  2. Season the fillets with onion, parsley, and mushroom trimmings.

  3. Roll up the fillets to enclose the seasoning.

Poach and make the sauce

  1. Simmer the fillets in court bouillon or broth made from their bones, stock, chablis, and vinegar until done.

  2. Remove the fillets and strain the broth.

  3. Thicken the broth in a bain-marie with flour, butter, and egg yolks.

  4. Add quartered mushrooms, white pepper, and salt to the sauce.

  5. Stir in cream before serving over the hot fillets.

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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set gently over the bain-marie, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, rounding the flavour and smoothing the thickened sauce.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a sauce when cooked with the fat and liquid.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, silkier texture to the finished sauce.
Pomfrets
The main fish, poached gently so the flesh stays moist and tender.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce in the bain-marie. Egg yolks thicken at a low, steady heat and curdle if they get too hot. Keeping the bain-marie gentle and stirring constantly gives a smooth sauce rather than scrambled bits.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, parsley, mushroom, vinegar, flour, butter, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, parsley, mushroom, vinegar, flour, butter, egg. 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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