Why it works: Horse and radish work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 529 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
Boiled Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean the fish thoroughly, paying special attention to the inside and backbone.
Place the fish in a kettle and cover it with cold water mixed with salt and saltpetre.
Cook
Bring to a gentle boil over moderate heat, skimming off any scum.
Cook the fish until done, about 20 to 30 minutes for medium size or 1 hour for large.
Serve
Drain the fish and serve it on a hot napkin, garnished with liver and roe.
Add tufts of scraped horseradish around the edge and serve with oyster sauce or melted butter.
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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Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together529 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together496 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + horsetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together63 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Horse + oystertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Fish + radishtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together65 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
- Fish
- Is the main cooked element, becoming firm and flaky as its proteins set during gentle poaching.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water and helps firm the flesh of the fish.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve color and firmness in the fish.
The step that matters
Bring to a gentle boil and skim. A gentle simmer cooks the fish evenly without breaking up the flesh, while skimming removes scum that would cloud the liquid and flavor the fish unpleasantly.
Swap the radish
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, horse, oyster):
- Cucumberfits about as well
- Radishthe original
- Mustardfits about as well
- Horseradishfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, horse, oyster. 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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