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Boiled Bass

A whole bass is boiled with vinegar, peppercorns, mace, salt, then served with drawn butter, capers, egg yolks, and mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and capers are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,637 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Bass

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Sew the fish in a piece of mosquito netting fitted to its shape.

Poach

  1. In a fish kettle, bring plenty of water to a boil and add vinegar, peppercorns, mace, and salt.

  2. Cook the fish for 10 minutes per pound plus an additional 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Remove the cloth and place the fish on a hot dish.

  2. Pour drawn butter over the fish, seasoned with capers and chopped egg yolks.

  3. Serve with mashed potatoes.

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 + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Vinegar + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,453 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Capers + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Mace + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Mace and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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

Bass
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to flaky, tender flesh in the poaching liquid.
Drawn butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the fish and carrying the seasonings.
Hard boiled eggs
Yolks add a soft, crumbly richness that complements the mild fish.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Cook the fish for 10 minutes per pound plus an additional 10 minutes. Fish protein sets and toughens quickly once it reaches cooking temperature, so overcooking dries and firms the flesh. Timing is judged by weight, so the fish should be weighed before it goes into the water.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, butter, capers, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, butter, capers, egg. 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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