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Scalloped Fish

A baked dish of boiled cod in a thickened milk and flour sauce, topped with cracker crumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Friday club, Yarmouth, Mass. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Scalloped Fish

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Scalloped Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Put four or five pounds of fresh cod or white fish to boil in salted water.

  2. When cooked, drain off water and remove all bones and skin.

  3. Pick fish into small pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. Put three pints of milk over fire to heat.

  2. Take one-half cup of flour and dissolve lumps in cold milk, add to hot milk and cook until it thickens.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, celery salt, and butter.

  4. Cut up green celery if you have it.

  5. Let the sauce cook, then butter a baking dish and layer sauce and fish until the dish is filled.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle rolled cracker crumbs on top, add bits of butter and brown in oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

692Calories
39 gProtein
10 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cod100g cooked82
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 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.

By Friday club, Yarmouth, Mass. [from old catalog]. 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.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Milk and flour 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

Cod
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the flaky fish layers.
Milk
Makes up the liquid base of the sauce that moistens the fish layers.
Flour
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth sauce that holds the fish together.

The step that matters

Dissolving the flour in cold milk. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps, because its starch grains coat themselves before they can disperse. Mixing it into cold milk first separates the grains so the sauce thickens smoothly when heated.

“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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