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Halibut on Toast

Halibut on Toast is a dish of boiled halibut mixed with butter and eggs, served over toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Halibut on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil salted water and add the halibut; cook for 15 minutes or until done.

  2. Remove the halibut from the water and chop it finely.

Make the halibut mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped halibut, melted butter, beaten eggs, salt, and pepper.

  2. In a thick-bottomed frying pan, melt 1 tablespoon of cold butter over medium heat.

  3. Tip the pan to grease the sides, then add the halibut and egg mixture.

  4. Stir gently until the eggs are cooked but not too hard.

Toast and serve

  1. Dip slices of bread in hot salted water, then toast them.

  2. Serve the halibut mixture over the toasted bread.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut
Provides the main body and flaky protein of the dish.
Eggs
Set when gently heated, binding the fish into a soft, creamy mixture.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the mixture tender as it cooks.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs gently. Egg proteins set as they heat, so cooking over medium heat and stirring gently keeps the mixture soft. Overcooking makes the eggs tight and dry, squeezing out moisture and leaving a grainy texture.

“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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