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Fish Pudding

A steamed fish pudding made with white fish, suet, breadcrumbs, parsley, milk or stock, eggs, anchovy essence, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove skin and bones from the fish and pound it well with the suet.

  2. If you don't have a mortar, chop the fish finely and rub it through a fine sieve.

  3. Add breadcrumbs, parsley, salt, pepper, and anchovy essence to the fish mixture and mix well.

  4. Beat the eggs slightly, add the milk or fish stock, and stir into the mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Grease a plain mold or basin, then pour in the mixture.

  2. Cover with greased paper.

  3. Steam gently for nearly 1½ hours.

  4. Serve with anchovy, egg, or melted butter sauce.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Parsley + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

White fish
Forms the main body of the pudding, giving it its substance and flaky texture when cooked.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during steaming.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture so it holds its shape.
Eggs
Set when heated, binding the pudding into a firm yet soft structure.
Milk or fish stock
Adds moisture that keeps the pudding soft and helps it blend into a smooth mixture.

The step that matters

Steam gently. Steaming at a gentle heat cooks the egg-bound mixture evenly without boiling water getting into the mold. Vigorous boiling can make the pudding rough and porous, so it is easy to overcook or spoil the texture.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, milk, egg, anchovy, pepper):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, egg, anchovy, pepper. 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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