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Creamed Fish

A baked fish dish with a creamy sauce made from flour, butter, milk, and seasonings, topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Creamed Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, cream the flour and butter, then add to the hot milk.

  2. Place in a double boiler and stir in the salt, pepper, onion juice, and bay leaf until thickened.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer half of the flaked fish, then pour half of the sauce over it.

  2. Add another layer of fish and pour the remaining sauce on top.

  3. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, dot with butter, and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until browned.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold fish
Forms the main body of the dish, giving it substance and flaky texture.
Flour
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth sauce that holds the fish together.
Hot milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and a mild, creamy richness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavour, and helps the top brown in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce in the double boiler. Flour thickens milk only when it is heated long enough for the starch to swell. Cooking gently in a double boiler avoids scorching and lumps, giving a smooth sauce that holds the fish layers together.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, milk, onion, bread, butter. 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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