Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
To Boil Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Stuff the fish with chopped salt pork and bread, seasoned with salt and pepper, and sew it up.
Wrap the fish in a cloth and place it in cold water, ensuring it is fully covered.
Cook and serve
Add salt at the rate of 1 teaspoon per pound of fish and 3 tablespoons of vinegar.
Boil slowly for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the fin can be easily pulled out.
Serve with drawn butter, eggs, and capers or nasturtium.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Fish + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together668 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Pepper + caperstop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,088 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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 dish, cooking gently in water to become flaky and tender.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the fish from inside as it cooks.
- Bread
- Absorbs juices from the fish and salt pork, keeping the stuffing moist.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the mild fish.
- Eggs
- Served alongside as a rich accompaniment that adds creamy texture.
The step that matters
Boil slowly for 20 to 30 minutes. Simmering gently rather than boiling hard keeps the fish tender and prevents it from breaking apart or drying out. Test whether the fin pulls out easily to judge doneness.
Swap the capers
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pork, bread, pepper, vinegar, butter, egg):
- Parsleyfits better
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Thymefits about as well
- Capersthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pork, bread, pepper, vinegar, butter, egg. 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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