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To Boil Fish

A simple method of boiling fish in salted water with vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,036 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓

To Boil Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Put a saucepan or fish kettle on the fire with enough water to cover the fish.

  2. Wash the fish in cold water.

  3. Salt the fish.

  4. Cut the fish open and remove the insides.

  5. Remove the eyes from all fish except cod.

  6. Cut off the fins and trim the tail.

  7. Wash the fish again inside and out.

Cook

  1. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and a little vinegar to the water.

  2. When the water boils, add the fish.

  3. Draw the pan aside to cook slowly.

  4. Cook a thick slice of fish for about 10 minutes, or a whole fish for 20 to 45 minutes.

  5. The fish is done when it is tender and loose near the bone.

  6. Carefully take it up to avoid breaking it.

  7. Serve on a hot dish.

  8. For mackerel and whiting, start in cold water and slowly bring to a boil.

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. Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

The step that matters

Drawing the pan aside to cook slowly. Keeping the water just below a boil cooks the fish gently, so the flesh turns tender and stays intact rather than breaking apart.

“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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