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Buttered Fish

A dish of flaked cold cooked fish mixed with eggs, butter, and milk, served on buttered toast and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Buttered Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the fish into flakes and discard the bones.

  2. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

Cook the mixture

  1. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the eggs and milk to the pan and stir until it begins to thicken.

  3. Add the fish and stir until the mixture reaches a jelly-like consistency.

Serve

  1. Butter the toast generously, heap the fish mixture on top, garnish with parsley, and serve hot.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set as they heat, thickening the mixture into a soft, custard-like base.
Milk
Dilutes the eggs and keeps the mixture creamy and tender as it thickens.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel, and helps keep the eggs from sticking.
Cold cooked fish
Provides the main flavour and body, folded into the thickening egg mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs and milk over medium heat. Egg proteins set quickly and can turn grainy or curdled if overheated. Gentle heat and constant stirring keep the mixture smooth and thickened rather than scrambled.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Cinnamonfits less well

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