Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
To Boil Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean and rinse the fish.
Wrap the fish in a cloth and place it in a kettle with cold water.
Boil
Add a little coarse sea salt and boil slowly, ensuring the water always covers the fish.
Remove any scum that rises to the surface.
When nearly done, add a little vinegar.
The fish is done when the flesh separates easily from the backbone with a thin knife.
Serve
Drain the fish on a sieve, keeping it hot.
Carefully lay the fish on a platter to avoid breaking it.
Serve with drawn butter.
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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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,036 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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, cooking to flaky, tender flesh in the water.
- Vinegar
- Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the mild flavour of the fish.
- Drawn butter
- Adds richness and fat that complements the lean, mild fish when served.
The step that matters
Keeping the water at a slow boil and covering the fish. Vigorous boiling breaks the delicate flesh apart, so the fish should simmer gently while staying fully submerged so it cooks evenly.
“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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