Why it works: Fish and salmon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,078 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Fried Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fat
Fry the salt pork in a large, deep pan until crisp to render fat.
Add enough lard or a mixture of butter and lard to the pan to reach a depth of ¼ inch.
Season the fat with salt.
Ensure the fat is boiling hot but not scorched.
Fry the fish
Wipe the fish dry and coat with flour, cornmeal, or cracker crumbs, or dip in beaten egg first.
Carefully place the fish in the hot fat, frying as many pieces as the pan can hold.
Fry until golden brown, turning to cook both sides evenly.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Fish + salmontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,078 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Pork + fishtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together668 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky interior inside a crisp coating.
- Flour, fine cornmeal, or cracker crumbs
- Forms a coating that crisps and browns in the hot fat and protects the fish.
- Lard or butter
- Conducts heat for frying and gives the coating its golden browning and rich flavour.
- Salt pork
- Renders fat and flavour into the frying medium as it crisps.
The step that matters
Keep the fat boiling hot but not scorched. Very hot fat sears the coating quickly so it crisps instead of absorbing grease and turning soggy. Fat that is too hot, however, burns the coating and fish before the interior cooks through.
“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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