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Dressed Fish

A soufflé made from whiting and lobster, folded with eggs, cream, and cayenne, steamed in a butter‑greased mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Whiting and lobster work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 73 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Dressed Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the meat from the bones of the whitings.

  2. Remove the coral from the lobster.

  3. Pound the whiting and lobster meat together in a mortar.

  4. Pass the mixture through a wire sieve.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, melt 1 ounce of butter, then add 2 ounces of flour.

  2. Add the fish stock.

  3. Cook well to make a sauce.

  4. Pound the lobster meat with the whiting and the sauce.

  5. Add the eggs one at a time.

  6. Pass through a hair sieve.

  7. Fold in the whipped cream.

  8. Fold in a little cayenne pepper.

Assemble and steam

  1. Grease a soufflé mold with butter.

  2. Add a layer of the mixture.

  3. Add some pieces of lobster claw meat.

  4. Repeat until the mold is full.

  5. Cover with buttered paper.

  6. Steam gently for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with white sauce poured over the soufflé.

  2. Use ½ pint of cream for a richer soufflé.

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. Whiting + lobstertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together73 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Whiting + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Fish + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the soufflé's structure and help it hold its raised shape.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and a softer, moister texture to the mixture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a sauce that supports the mixture.
Butter
Forms the roux with the flour and adds richness to the sauce.
Lobster meat
Provides the main shellfish flavor and tender pieces within the soufflé.
Whiting meat
Supplies the fish base and body of the mixture.

The step that matters

Steam gently for 30 minutes.. Egg-based soufflés set from the edges inward. Gentle steam heats the mixture evenly, so it cooks through without becoming rough, dense, or porous, while violent boiling can disturb the rise.

“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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