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Fish Pudding

A baked or fried dish of boiled fish mixed with mashed potatoes, butter, egg, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Remove the flesh from the bones of the boiled fish and cut it into small dice.

  2. In a bowl, mix the fish with an equal amount of mashed potatoes using a fork.

  3. Melt the butter and pour it into the mixture, then add salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.

  4. Beat the egg and add it to the mixture, combining everything well.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pudding dish, smooth the top, and score it neatly.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

Make small cakes and serve

  1. For small cakes, shape the mixture into rounds, flour them, and fry in hot dripping until golden brown on both sides.

  2. Drain and serve as a breakfast dish.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main body and flavour of the pudding.
Mashed potatoes
Adds bulk and softness, helping the mixture hold together and stay moist.
Butter
Adds richness and moistness to the mixture.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it sets firm when baked.

The step that matters

Combining the egg into the mixture. The egg is the binder that lets the pudding set when baked. If the mixture is too loose or the egg is not fully combined, the pudding may not hold its shape or set evenly.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

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