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Steamed Fish Shape

A steamed fish dish made with haddock, breadcrumbs, milk, butter, eggs, lemon, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Steamed Fish Shape

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil the haddock, then chop it very finely.

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs and heated milk.

  2. Add melted butter, chopped fish, pepper, salt, lemon juice, and lemon rind.

  3. Drop in the yolks of the eggs and mix well.

  4. Beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter a tin mold and line it with paper.

  2. Fill the mold three-quarters full with the mixture and cover with buttered paper.

  3. Steam gently for 1 hour.

  4. Serve with white sauce, garnished with parsley and lemon slices.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Haddock
Forms the main body of the shape and gives it its flavour.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and help bind the fish into a soft, sliceable mass.
Milk
Softens the crumbs and adds moisture so the shape stays tender.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when steamed; whipped whites add lightness.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture to the fish mixture.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiff whites hold air that lightens the mixture. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out that air, leaving a dense shape. Fold gently so the mixture stays light.

“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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