Name: Cream Sauce for Fish
Ingredients: 3 ounces good butter; 1 large teaspoon flour; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; cayenne pepper to taste; ½ pint good cream; 2 teaspoons essence of anchovies; 1 teaspoon chili vinegar or lemon juice

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream Sauce for Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

In a clean saucepan, knead together the butter and flour with a strong knife until smooth.
Heat over a gentle fire until the butter is dissolved.
Add the salt and cayenne, and simmer for one minute.
Gradually stir in the cream and keep stirring until it boils.
Mix in the essence of anchovies and chili vinegar or lemon juice.

Finish

If too thick, thin with a few spoons of milk.
For a variation, add diced shelled shrimps or lobsters.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

Butter: Enriches the sauce and carries flavor, giving it a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Flour: Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth, stable sauce.
Cream: Adds body and richness, becoming silky as the sauce is brought to a boil.
Essence of anchovies: Adds a savory, salty depth of flavor to the sauce.
Chili vinegar or lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances its savoriness.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream. Adding cream gradually while stirring keeps the flour-butter mixture smooth, preventing lumps. Continued stirring as it heats lets the starch thicken evenly.

“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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Cream Sauce for Fish