Why it works: Fish and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,889 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Wrap the seasoned fish tightly in a piece of white cloth.
Boil the wrapped fish in water with lemon juice.
Carefully remove the cloth and serve with white sauce, egg sauce, or drawn butter.
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.
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Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,889 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 and cooks through gently while wrapped and boiled.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the mild flavour of the fish.
The step that matters
Carefully remove the cloth. Cooked fish is delicate and its flesh separates into flakes when it is hot and tender. Lifting it out slowly and supporting it fully keeps the portion whole.
“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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