Name: Breaded Small Perch
Ingredients: 2 lbs/1 kg small perch,; 2 tablespoons flour,; 2 eggs,; 1 tablespoon milk,; bread crumbs,; salt,; 1 lemon,; 4-5 tablespoons oil

Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Breaded Small Perch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

Clean and wash the fish, salt and let sit for a half hour.
Dry each fish with a clean cloth, dredge first with the eggs beaten with the milk, then with the flour, then again with the eggs and then with the bread crumbs.
Hold the fish's head with one hand and the tail with the other, while dredging with the bread crumbs so that it is uniformly covered.

Fry and serve

Fry in hot oil, at low temperature, so that it does not burn.
Arrange on a platter and garnish with the quartered lemon.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

813Calories

28 gProtein

28 gFat

111 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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.

Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs: Beaten eggs form a sticky layer that helps the flour and bread crumbs adhere to the fish.
Flour: A dry first coating that gives the egg wash a surface to cling to and helps the crust stick.
Bread crumbs: Form the crisp, golden outer crust when the fish is fried.
Oil: Conducts heat to fry the breaded coating until crisp and browned.

The step that matters

Fry at low temperature. Frying in hot oil at a low temperature lets the fish cook through before the bread crumb coating burns. Too high a heat browns the outside while the inside stays underdone.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, milk, bread):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, milk, 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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

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Breaded Small Perch