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Sweet and Sour Fish

A fish dish with a sweet and sour gravy made from water, sugar, raisins, onion, lemon, salt, pepper, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By New Orleans Federation of Clubs · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Sweet and Sour Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Get a red snapper, sliced.

  2. Put 3 cups of water, a large onion cut round, 1/2 lemon, 2 tablespoonfuls sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, and 1/2 cup raisins into a pot.

Cook and thicken

  1. Brown 1 tablespoonful of sugar in an iron skillet, then add the gravy, add the fish, and cook until tender.

  2. Thicken the gravy with 1 tablespoonful flour dissolved in water.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

111Calories
1 gProtein
0 gFat
29 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Waternot in our table0

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

By New Orleans Federation of Clubs. 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. See the original page.

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. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Red snapper (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish and turns tender and flaky as it cooks.
Sugar
Browns to add color and a caramel sweetness that balances the sour notes.
Raisins
Add sweetness and a soft, plumping texture to the gravy.
Lemon (in the method)
Adds the sour, acidic note that defines the sweet and sour balance.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the gravy as its starch swells when heated in liquid.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with flour dissolved in water. Flour must be fully dispersed in liquid before heating, or it forms lumps. Once the starch is heated in the gravy, it swells and thickens the sauce evenly.

“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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