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Scotch Fish Pudding

A baked fish pudding made with cold fish, onion, parsley, mushroom, pepper, salt, eggs, and bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Scotch Fish Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Chop and pound the cold fish.

  2. Mix in the minced onion, parsley, mushroom, pepper, salt, and eggs.

  3. Line a plain mold with slices of fat bacon.

  4. Fill the mold with the fish mixture and cover with more bacon.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1.5 hours.

  2. Turn the pudding onto a dish.

  3. Remove the bacon.

  4. Serve with brown sauce or cold with marinade.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold fish
Forms the main body of the pudding, which holds its shape when sliced.
Eggs
Bind the fish mixture and set during baking to give the pudding its firm texture.
Fat bacon slices
Line and cover the mold, adding fat and savoury flavour that keeps the fish moist.

The step that matters

Baking the pudding. The eggs set as the pudding bakes. Too little time leaves the centre loose and custard-like, while too much heat or time makes the fish dry and rubbery.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, parsley, mushroom, pepper, 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.

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