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Fish Cutlets

Fish cutlets made with butter, flour, milk, fish, egg yolks, and served with Hollandaise sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Fish Cutlets

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Fish Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the fish base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly until boiling.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, onion juice, Worcestershire sauce, and parsley.

  5. Remove from heat and mix in the cold cooked fish and egg yolks.

  6. Cool the mixture, then shape it into cutlets.

Fry and serve

  1. Coat the cutlets in breadcrumbs and fry until golden brown.

  2. Serve with Hollandaise sauce.

Make the Hollandaise

  1. For Hollandaise, cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Add the egg yolks one at a time, stirring until well blended.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice and cook over hot water until thickened.

  4. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce that binds the fish mixture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that holds the fish together when cooled.
Cooked fish
Provides the main body and flavor of the cutlets.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the fish mixture so it holds its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the sauce and the Hollandaise.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks to the Hollandaise. Egg yolks scramble if they get too hot too fast. Adding them one at a time and cooking gently over hot water lets them thicken smoothly into a sauce instead of curdling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, pepper, sauce, parsley, fish):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, pepper, sauce, parsley, fish. 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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