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Steamed Fish

A whole fish is seasoned, chilled, steamed, and served with parsley and drawn butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Steamed Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the fish on a plate, with the tail in its mouth.

  2. Pour the vinegar over the fish and season with pepper and salt.

  3. Let the fish chill on ice or in a very cold place for 1 hour.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour off the vinegar and steam the fish for 20 to 30 minutes, or until fully cooked.

  2. Drain the fish well and serve on a napkin with curled parsley.

  3. Serve drawn butter in a sauce boat.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole fish
Forms the main body of the dish and is cooked through by steaming.
Vinegar
Acidity that is poured off before steaming, leaving a sharp flavour on the flesh during chilling.

The step that matters

Chill the fish before steaming. The fish needs its full hour in cold conditions so the flesh firms and the vinegar seasons it evenly. Pouring off the vinegar before steaming keeps the cooked fish from tasting overly sour.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, vinegar, pepper, butter):

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, vinegar, pepper, butter. 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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