Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Fried Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean the fish, wash, and dry it well. Cut into serving pieces.
Season the fish with salt and pepper.
Dip the pieces in flour or a medium thick batter made from flour, water, and eggs.
Fry and serve
Fry in plenty of hot butter or olive oil until both sides are browned.
Garnish with parsley and sliced lemons 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.
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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, cooked until flaky and tender.
- Flour
- Creates a dry coating that browns in the hot fat and helps seal in moisture.
- Eggs
- Bind the flour and water into a batter that clings to the fish when fried.
- Butter or olive oil
- Conducts heat for frying and gives the coating its golden browning and flavour.
The step that matters
Fry in plenty of hot fat. The fat must be hot and deep enough so the coating sets and browns quickly. If the fat is cool or too little, the fish absorbs grease, the coating turns soggy, and the pieces steam instead of crisping.
“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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