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Boiled Bass

A simple boiled bass served with boiled potatoes and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Boiled Bass

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scale and clean the Bass.

  2. Wash it well and drain.

Poach

  1. Put it into a saucepan of warm salted water.

  2. Set the saucepan on the fire and bring to a boil.

  3. Once boiling, reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Remove the fish and drain.

  2. Place it on a napkin spread over a dish.

  3. Garnish with boiled potatoes and sprigs of parsley, then serve.

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 + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Bass
Firm flesh that sets as it cooks, holding its shape and flaking when done.
Boiled potatoes
Starchy side that adds body and a soft, absorbent texture to the plate.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after boiling. A rolling boil agitates and toughens the delicate fish proteins, causing the flesh to break apart and dry out. Reducing the heat to a gentle simmer cooks the fish evenly while keeping it moist and intact.

“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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