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 ↓
Baked Fish
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make a dressing by mixing bread crumbs, butter, coarse sea salt, and chopped salt pork with the egg.
Stuff the fish with the dressing, sew it up, and place it in a large baking dish.
Lay strips of salt pork across the fish for flavor.
Bake and serve
Add water and a little salt to the pan.
Bake for 1.5 hours, basting frequently.
After removing the fish, thicken the gravy and pour it over the fish before serving.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Fish + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together668 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + porktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,371 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg
- Binds the dressing so the bread crumbs hold together inside the fish.
- Bread crumbs
- Form the bulk of the dressing, absorbing butter and juices to keep the stuffing moist.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the dressing, keeping it moist and flavorful as it bakes.
- Salt pork
- Contributes fat and savory flavor that seasons the fish and dressing as it renders.
The step that matters
Basting frequently during the 1.5-hour bake. Regular basting spoons fat and liquid over the fish surface, keeping the flesh moist while the exterior browns and the juices concentrate into gravy.
“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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