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Fish Mould

A steamed fish cake made with chopped fish, egg, butter, flour, milk, and anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sauce base

  1. Chop the fish finely.

  2. Melt the butter in a pan.

  3. Add the flour and stir in the milk gradually.

  4. Bring to a boil, then remove from the stove.

Make the mould

  1. Add the fish, seasonings, and beaten egg.

  2. Turn into a buttered mold, cover with buttered paper, and steam for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Turn out, garnish with parsley, and serve with any fish 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Cold fish
Forms the body of the mould and gives it its main flavour.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour through the sauce base.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the fish together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and softness.
Anchovy essence
Adds a salty, savoury depth of flavour to the fish mixture.

The step that matters

Bring the sauce to a boil and cool it slightly before adding the egg. Flour must be cooked through in the boiling milk to thicken properly and lose its raw taste. Adding a beaten egg to a very hot mixture can scramble it, leaving uneven texture in the mould.

“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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