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Fish Pudding

A steamed fish pudding made with flaked fish, eggs, cream, anchovy sauce, mashed potatoes, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce 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 ↓

Fish Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Pound the cold fish in a mortar with the other ingredients until creamy.

Steam and serve

  1. Prepare a buttered basin and pour the mixture into it.

  2. Cover with buttered paper and steam for 45 minutes.

  3. Serve with egg sauce and cream over the pudding when turned out.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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

Raw eggs
Bind the mixture so it holds its shape when steamed and turned out.
Potatoes
Add body and softness, giving the pudding a lighter, creamier texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the pudding.
Fish
Forms the main body of the pudding and provides its flavour.

The step that matters

Pounding the fish until creamy. Breaking the flaked fish down finely with the other ingredients gives an even, smooth texture. Coarse pieces left behind would make the pudding crumbly rather than set evenly.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, cream, pepper, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, cream, pepper, anchovy, sauce. 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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