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Fish and Shell Fish

A fish stuffed with pork, seasoned, baked, and served with Hollandaise or tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish and Shell Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the stuffing and fish

  1. Moisten the chopped pork with cold water and mix in salt and pepper.

  2. Stuff the mixture into the body of the fish and secure with a skewer.

  3. Butter a baking sheet and place it in a baking pan.

  4. Cut gashes in the fish, about ½ inch deep and 2 inches long.

  5. Insert strips of pork into the gashes.

  6. Dredge the fish with salt, pepper, and flour.

Bake and serve

  1. Add hot water to the bottom of the pan and place it in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. Bake for 1 hour, basting every 15 minutes with the pan gravy and dredging with salt, pepper, and flour.

  3. Renew the water in the pan as needed to keep it covered.

  4. Once cooked, lift the fish onto the baking sheet and transfer it to a serving dish.

  5. Pour Hollandaise sauce or tomato sauce around the fish and garnish with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chopped pork
Forms a moist, savoury stuffing and strips that flavour the fish from inside.
Flour
Dredging coat that helps the surface of the fish brown and thicken the pan gravy.

The step that matters

Keeping the pan covered with water. Water in the pan turns to steam in the hot oven, gently cooking the fish and keeping its flesh moist. If the water runs low, the fish can dry out and the gravy can scorch.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, flour, sauce):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, flour, sauce. 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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