Why it works: Fish and oyster work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 496 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Boiling Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the fish gently until done: 30 minutes for large, 20 minutes for medium, and 15 minutes for small fish, starting from when it begins to boil.
Serve the fish with the liver and garnish with scraped horseradish.
Serve with oyster sauce or shrimp sauce.
Boil the liver separately in a small saucepan to prevent discoloration of the fish.
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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Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together496 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Oyster + shrimptop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together531 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Horseradish + saucetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together775 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Fish + shrimptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together252 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Horseradish + oystertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together282 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Provides the main protein, which sets and flakes as it cooks gently in water.
- Oyster sauce
- Adds salty, savoury depth to the mild boiled fish.
- Shrimp sauce
- Adds salty, savoury depth to the mild boiled fish.
The step that matters
Boil the fish gently until done. Keep the water at a gentle boil and time from when it starts boiling. Strong boiling breaks the fish apart and toughens the flesh, while overcooking dries it out. Timing by size keeps each fish moist and intact.
Swap the horseradish
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, oyster, sauce, shrimp):
- Horseradishthe original
- Cucumberfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, oyster, sauce, shrimp. 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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