Why it works: Fish sauce and butter work together. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 141 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
A Brace of Trout. White Fiſh Sauce, T and Plain Butter.
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook
Clean and prepare the trout.
Boil the trout until cooked through.
Serve
Serve with white fish sauce and 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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Fish sauce + buttertop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together141 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Trout
- Provides the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks through.
- White fish sauce
- Adds moisture and savory flavor to the fish when served.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the fish a smooth, mellow flavor.
The step that matters
Boil the trout until cooked through. Fish overcooks quickly, and past the point of doneness the proteins tighten, making the flesh dry and firm. Stop once the flesh is opaque and flakes easily.
“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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