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 ↓
Boiled Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Poach the fish
Wash the fish thoroughly in cold water.
Place the fish in a saucepan with enough water to cover it and add salt until the water tastes salty.
Cover the saucepan and simmer gently for 20 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on the size of the fish, skimming occasionally.
When the skin of the fish is cracking, remove it carefully and place it on a hot dish.
Make the sauce
For the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan.
Stir in the flour until smooth.
Pour in the cold water and stir until the sauce boils and thickens.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Fish + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,532 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Melts to form the fat base that gives the sauce richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as its starch swells when heated in the butter and water.
The step that matters
Pour in the cold water and stir until the sauce boils and thickens. Flour starch only thickens fully once the liquid reaches a boil. Stirring while adding the cold water keeps the flour dispersed, which prevents lumps from forming.
“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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