Why it works: Fish and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,036 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓
For Boiling Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the fish in coarse sea salt overnight.
In a kettle, bring two-thirds full of water to a boil.
Add vinegar and salt to the boiling water.
Place the fish on a drainer or roll it in a cloth.
Submerge the fish in the boiling water.
Boil a four-pound fish for 30 minutes.
For salmon, boil in tepid water and skim thoroughly for the same time.
For small freshwater fish, use cold water; they are cooked as soon as they boil.
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.
-
Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,036 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
More boiled fish recipes
You might also like
Green Corn Pudding64 recipes
Cornmeal mush12 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.