Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Steamed Halibut
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Clean the halibut by wiping it with a cheese cloth wrung out of cold water.
Place the halibut in a strainer over a kettle of boiling water.
Cover the strainer closely and keep the water boiling until the fish is done.
Check that the fish is cooked when the flesh leaves the bone.
Make the sauce
Melt ¾ tablespoon butter for the sauce.
Add ¾ tablespoon flour to the melted butter and mix well.
Gradually pour in ½ cup boiling water while stirring constantly.
Season the sauce with salt.
Add ¾ tablespoon butter in small pieces to the sauce.
Serve
Remove the fish to a hot serving dish.
Take off the outside skin.
Pour drawn butter sauce around the fish.
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.
-
Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Cheese + flourtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,860 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Halibut
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently by steam until the flesh is tender.
- Butter
- Melted and whisked into the sauce, adding richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Mixed with melted butter to form a roux that thickens the sauce.
The step that matters
Check that the fish is cooked when the flesh leaves the bone. Steamed fish turns dry and tough once overcooked, so testing for flesh that separates easily from the bone helps catch it at the right point.
“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.
You might also like
Macaroni and Cheese102 recipes
Cheese Making50 recipes
Cheese Fritters34 recipes
Cheese Omelette31 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.