Skip to main content
Main

Fried Fish

Breaded fish fried in dripping or oil, seasoned with pepper and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Fried Fish

Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Fried Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and dry the fish.

  2. For small fish, fry them whole; for large fish, cut them into pieces.

  3. Rub the fish with flour or dip them in beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs or rolled crackers.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat enough dripping in a frying pan to cover the fish.

  2. Once hot, add the fish and fry until both sides are golden brown.

  3. Sprinkle lightly with pepper and coarse sea salt just before they finish cooking.

  4. Serve immediately in a hot dish.

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.

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.

  1. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 through by frying in hot fat.
Dry sifted flour
Creates a dry surface that helps the coating adhere and brown.
Beaten egg
Acts as a glue so the bread crumbs or crackers stick to the fish.
Bread crumbs or rolled crackers
Forms a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Dripping (or oil)
Conducts heat to cook the fish and drives browning of the coating.

The step that matters

Fry until both sides are golden brown. The fat must be hot before the fish goes in; a cool pan lets the coating soak up grease and turn soggy instead of crisp. Moisture left on the fish also causes spattering and steaming, which is why drying it first matters.

“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

Breaded 6Battered 3Cakes 3Fillets 3in Batter 3Roe 3 See all 169 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipes