Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Fish Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Melt the butter in a pan.
Add the flour and stir continuously.
Gradually add the milk while stirring.
Add the fish stock and season with salt and pepper.
Boil for 2 minutes.
Add the fish
Add the cold fish broken into flakes.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Fish + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Butter
- Fat that coats the flour and carries flavour in the soup base.
- Flour
- Starch that thickens the liquid as it heats and gives the soup body.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and a soft, rich texture to the soup.
- Fish stock
- Main liquid that provides the savoury fish flavour of the soup.
- Cold fish
- Provides the flaked fish that makes the soup substantial.
The step that matters
Gradually add the milk while stirring. Flour starch swells as it meets liquid. Adding the milk slowly while stirring spreads the liquid evenly through the butter and flour, which helps prevent lumps in the thickened soup.
“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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