Why it works: Flour and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,675 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Observations on Dressing Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the fish clean and dry them well with a cloth.
Dust the fish with flour or rub them with egg and breadcrumbs.
Heat the dripping, hog's lard, or beef suet until boiling.
Fry the fish until hard and clear, avoiding butter to prevent burning.
Drain the fried fish on a dish or hair sieve before serving.
For boiled fish, wash and rub with a little vinegar before placing in water.
Boil the fish slowly until it leaves the bone.
Set the fish-plate over hot water to drain and cover to maintain color.
Pick and wash the parsley, dip it in cold water, then fry in boiling fat until crisp.
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.
-
Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Fish + beeftop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together226 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,477 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,866 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, flour, egg, beef, vinegar):
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Turmericfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, egg, beef, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
More breaded fish recipes
You might also like
Roast Beef211 recipes
Beef Loaf175 recipes
Fried Fish120 recipes
Corned Beef87 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.