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Fish LA Mayonnaise

A fish dish coated in a mayonnaise-like sauce made from egg whites, yolks, mustard, cornstarch, and beef broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish LA Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the fish

  1. Boil the fish for about 10 minutes, then remove and let it cool on a dish.

Make the sauce

  1. In a bowl, mix the salt, beaten egg whites, mustard, and cornstarch, then add the egg yolks and beat until combined.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cover the cooled fish with the mixture and pour the beef broth over it.

  2. Decorate the fish with the hard boiled eggs, cut into quarters.

  3. Garnish with lettuce and radish before serving.

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. Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lettuce + radishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together58 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Fish + beeftop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Mustard + beeftop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped or beaten whites add lightness and help the mixture set and hold its shape.
Egg yolks
Yolks add richness and emulsifying fat, giving the coating a smooth, creamy body.
Cornstarch
Starch thickens the mixture as it heats, giving the coating a stable, sliceable body.
Mustard
Mustard adds sharp flavor and helps emulsify the fats in the sauce.
Hard boiled eggs
Cooked whites and yolks add firm texture and mild richness as a garnish.

The step that matters

Beating the egg mixture until combined. Egg proteins and starch must be evenly blended before the mixture is spread over the fish, otherwise lumps and uneven setting can result. Thorough mixing gives a smooth, uniform coating.

Swap the radish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, mustard, beef, lettuce):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Radishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, mustard, beef, lettuce. 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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