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Boiled Fish, Sauce Hollandaise

A boiled fish served with a hollandaise sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Fish, Sauce Hollandaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the gills from the fish and tie it into an 'S' shape with string.

  2. Place large fish in cold water, or use boiling water for small fish.

  3. Add coarse sea salt.

  4. Heat gradually for large fish to ensure even cooking.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the white sauce.

  2. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

  3. Whisk in the egg yolks, vinegar or lemon juice, and salad oil until combined.

  4. Add mustard if desired.

Serve

  1. Serve the fish with skin on or off.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,487 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish; cooking it gently keeps the flesh moist and tender.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the oil and acid to thicken the sauce into a smooth, rich texture.
Salad oil
Provides fat that is emulsified into the yolks, giving the sauce a rich, creamy body.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the sauce and helps stabilise the emulsion.
White sauce
Forms the base of the sauce, providing body and a smooth, thickened texture.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg yolks into the sauce. Egg yolks can scramble if the sauce is too hot, and oil can separate if it is added too quickly. Whisking steadily while combining helps form a smooth, stable emulsion.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, sauce, pepper, egg, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, sauce, pepper, egg, vinegar. 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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