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 a mixture of chopped salt pork, bread, and butter, seasoned with salt and pepper.
Sew the fish closed and wrap it in a cloth.
Place the wrapped fish in cold water, ensuring it is fully covered.
Boil and serve
Add 1 teaspoon of salt for each pound of fish and 3 tablespoons of vinegar.
Boil slowly for 20-30 minutes until the fin pulls out easily.
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.
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Fish + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together668 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,371 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salt pork
- Renders fat into the stuffing, adding moisture and savory richness to the fish.
- Bread
- Soaks up fat and juices in the stuffing, keeping it moist rather than dense.
- Butter
- Adds fat to the stuffing, carrying flavor and keeping the fish moist as it cooks.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity to the poaching water, sharpening the flavor of the mild fish.
- Eggs
- Served alongside the fish, adding richness and a soft, creamy contrast to the lean flesh.
The step that matters
Boil slowly for 20-30 minutes until the fin pulls out easily.. Boiling hard can break up the delicate flesh and toughen it. A gentle simmer cooks the fish evenly, and the fin test shows when the flesh is done.
Swap the capers
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pork, bread, butter, vinegar, egg):
- Capersthe original
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pork, bread, butter, vinegar, 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.
More boiled fish recipes
You might also like
Brown Bread461 recipes
Fried Fish120 recipes
Pork Cake107 recipes
Roast Pork82 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.