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Baked Fish

A whole fish baked with bread crumbs, butter or fat, onions, and optional herbs, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Summer savory and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 214 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Clean and dry the fish, then stuff it lightly with the bread crumb mixture.

  3. Sew up the opening of the fish and place it in a baking pan.

  4. Rub the fish with butter, lard, or beef dripping, then dredge with flour or bread crumbs.

Season and bake

  1. Top with thin slices of raw onion, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  2. Optionally, add slices of fat salt pork or bacon on top.

  3. Pour ½ pint of stock or beef dripping into the pan, ensuring some goes under the fish.

  4. Cover the fish with greased paper to prevent scorching.

  5. Bake for 40-50 minutes, basting frequently.

Serve

  1. Serve with fish gravy and enjoy cold if desired.

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.

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. Summer savory + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together214 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Summer savory + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 through in the oven while staying moist under cover.
Butter, lard, or beef dripping
Coats the fish with fat, supporting moisture and gentle browning on the surface.
Bread crumbs
Fill the cavity and coat the outside, adding texture and helping absorb juices.
Stock or beef dripping
Poured into the pan to add moisture and flavour and keep the fish from drying out.
Raw onion
Sits on top of the fish, adding aroma and sweetness as it softens and flavours the juices.

The step that matters

Covering the fish with greased paper. Covering protects the surface from scorching in the hot oven, while the liquid in the pan keeps the flesh moist. Greasing the paper stops it sticking to the fish skin.

Swap the summer savory

The recipe marks summer savory as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, bread, butter, pepper, thyme, sage, beef):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Summer savorythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, bread, butter, pepper, thyme, sage, beef. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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