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Fish Mould

A steamed fish dish made with chopped fish, egg, butter, flour, milk, and anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the flour and stir until combined.

  3. Gradually stir in the milk and bring to a boil, then remove from heat.

Mould and steam

  1. Add the chopped fish, anchovy essence, and beaten egg. Season with salt and pepper.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold, cover with buttered paper, and steam for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Turn out the mold, garnish with parsley, and serve with any fish sauce.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Fish
Forms the main body of the mould and gives it its flavour.
Egg
Binds the fish and sets when steamed, holding the mould together.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that gives the mixture body.
Milk
Forms the moist, creamy sauce base that keeps the mould tender.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour in the starting roux.

The step that matters

Bring the milk sauce to a boil before adding the fish. The flour must be fully cooked into the milk so the sauce thickens smoothly. If the base stays thin or lumpy, the mixture will not hold its shape when steamed and turned out.

“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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