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Fish Pudding

A baked fish pudding made with fish, milk, Crisco, flour, salt, onion juice, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,432 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Fish Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil the fish in clear water until cooked.

  2. Shred or break the fish into small pieces, removing skin and bones.

Make the sauce

  1. Combine milk, Crisco, flour, salt, and onion juice in a saucepan.

  2. Cook the mixture until thick.

  3. Add the flaked fish to the sauce and stir well.

  4. Remove from heat and mix in the beaten eggs thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Press the mixture into a greased mold.

  2. Cover the mold with greased paper and place it in warm water.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

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

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

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Fish
Forms the bulk and flaky body of the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set it firm when baked.
Flour
Thickens the milk sauce so it holds the fish together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and softness.
Crisco
Adds fat for a tender, rich texture.

The step that matters

Mix the beaten eggs into the sauce after removing it from heat. Eggs scrambled by direct high heat turn grainy and curdled. Taking the sauce off the heat first lets the eggs blend smoothly and set evenly as the pudding bakes.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, flour, 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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