Why it works: Whiting and haddock match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 103 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Envelop the fish in flour using a large napkin.
Place the floured fish in a colander to remove excess flour.
Fry
Heat hot melted lard in a copper pot over a charcoal fire.
Fry the fish in the hot lard until they begin to bubble, about 2 minutes.
Remove the fish with a skimmer and drain in a colander.
Serve
Serve the fish on a dish, flavored with cayenne and lemon juice, alongside brown bread and butter.
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.
-
Whiting + haddocktop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together103 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through in hot fat while its exterior crisps.
- Flour
- Coats the fish so its surface dries and browns when it hits the hot lard.
- Lard
- Hot fat that fries the fish, transferring heat quickly to form a crisp coating.
The step that matters
Frying the floured fish in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the flour absorbs fat instead of crisping, leaving the fish greasy and pale. Fish should also be dried of excess flour first so the coating adheres evenly without clumping.
“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.
More fried fish recipes
You might also like
Brown Bread461 recipes
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Fish Croquettes81 recipes
White Bread80 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.