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Fish Pudding or Scalloped Fish

A baked fish dish with a creamy milk sauce, mashed potato topping, and browned bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Pudding or Scalloped Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin and bones from the fish and break it into large flakes.

  2. Simmer the onion and mace in the milk for 20 minutes, then strain.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan, add the flour, then gradually stir in the milk until boiling.

  2. Cook for 2 minutes, then season well and add the fish.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish, cover with mashed potato, and sprinkle with browned bread crumbs.

  2. Set in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until thoroughly hot.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the milk with the melted butter into a smooth white sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the flour so it cooks into the sauce without lumps.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that binds the fish together.
Cold fish
Provides the main body and flavor of the pudding.

The step that matters

Adding the milk gradually to the butter and flour. Stirring the liquid in slowly lets the starch in the flour swell evenly as it heats, so the sauce turns smooth instead of lumpy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, flour, milk, potato, onion, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, flour, milk, potato, onion, pepper. 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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