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Scalloped Fish

A baked fish dish with milk, onion, parsley, butter, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Scalloped Fish

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Heat 1 pint of milk in a saucepan over boiling water.

  2. Add finely chopped onion, minced parsley, butter, salt, and white pepper.

  3. Stir in corn starch or flour mixed with a little cold milk and bring to a boil.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter the sides and bottom of a serving dish.

  2. Layer minced fish, cream mixture, and cracker or bread crumbs in the dish, repeating until full.

  3. Top with cracker or bread crumbs to prevent scorching and bake.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that binds the fish and crumbs together.
Corn starch or flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as its starch swells when heated.
Cold fresh fish or salt codfish
Provides the main flavour and bulk of the dish, set in the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the sauce and greases the dish.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Adds texture and a crisp topping that browns during baking.

The step that matters

Bring the starch mixture to a boil. Starch must be heated to a boil so its granules swell and thicken the milk fully; undercooked starch leaves a thin, pasty sauce that does not set.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, onion, parsley, egg, butter, corn, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, onion, parsley, egg, butter, corn, bread. 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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