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Moulded Halibut

A chilled, molded fish dish made with halibut, bread crumbs, cream, and egg whites, served with roast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Moulded Halibut

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Cook the bread crumbs in cream until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the cream mixture to the sieved halibut.

  3. Stir in salt, white pepper or paprika, and onion juice.

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites gently.

  5. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold.

  6. Add chopped ginger and maraschino, mixing well.

Freeze and serve

  1. Freeze using three parts ice to one part salt.

  2. Serve with roast.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

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

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut
Forms the main body and flaky texture of the mold.
Bread crumbs
Soak up cream and help bind the fish into a smooth, sliceable mixture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mold tender rather than dry.
Egg whites
Trap air when beaten, giving the mixture a lighter, more delicate structure.
Ginger
Contributes a sharp, warm aroma that cuts through the richness of the cream.
Maraschino
Adds sweet, fruity aroma and flavour that complements the ginger.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites gently.. Egg whites hold air only while they are stiff. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the mold turns dense instead of light and tender.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, cream, onion, egg, ginger, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, cream, onion, egg, ginger, 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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