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Cream of Fish

A creamy fish soup made with cooked fish, butter, eggs, breadcrumbs, white sauce, anchovy essence, lemon juice, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy 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 ↓

Cream of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove all skin and bones from the fish and pound it well with the butter.

  2. Rub the mixture through a wire sieve.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix in the breadcrumbs, anchovy essence, lemon juice, white sauce, and seasonings.

  2. Add the yolks of the eggs, then fold in the stiffly whisked egg whites.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold, cover with buttered paper, and steam for 1 hour.

  2. Turn out and serve with anchovy 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. Sauce + anchovytop 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. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  5. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trapped by whisking give the mold a light, risen, airy texture as it steams.
Fish
Forms the body of the dish, setting into a soft, tender mass when steamed.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the pounded fish become smooth and moist.
White sauce
Adds moisture and binds the mixture so it holds together when turned out.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help give the mixture body and a firmer, more sliceable structure.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whisked whites hold air that gives lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out the air, so fold gently and keep the mixture light enough to rise while steaming.

“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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