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Cat-fish Soup

A soup made with catfish, salt pork, milk, eggs, celery, and sweet herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,386 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Cat-fish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin and clean the catfish.

  2. Cut the catfish into pieces.

  3. Chop the salt pork into small pieces.

Cook the soup

  1. Combine the catfish, salt pork, water, chopped sweet herbs, and celery in a pot.

  2. Boil for one hour or until the fish and pork are cooked through.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the eggs and mix them with the milk.

  2. Add the milk and eggs to the pot and stir well.

  3. Heat through 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. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Pork + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,572 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Catfish + porktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together20 recipes

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

  5. Milk + celerytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Catfish
Forms the main body of the soup, becoming flaky as it cooks.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor to the broth as it renders.
Eggs
Thicken the soup slightly when gently heated with the milk.
Milk
Adds richness and body, softening the broth's flavor.
Celery
Contributes aromatic flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and eggs. Eggs thicken when heated, but if the liquid boils after they go in, they can curdle and turn grainy. Stir well and only heat through, as the record directs.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (catfish, pork, milk, egg):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against catfish, pork, milk, egg. 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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