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Baked Red Snapper or White Fish

A fish baked with a bread crumb and onion dressing, seasoned with salt, pepper, parsley, and bay leaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Baked Red Snapper or White Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dressing

  1. Select a nice fish, clean thoroughly, and make a dressing by taking 1 large onion, a few sprigs of parsley chopped fine, mix with a cup of stale bread crumbs. Season well with salt, pepper, and bay leaf.

  2. Put a large spoonful of butter in a skillet, fry the onion until light brown.

  3. Add the other ingredients.

Stuff and bake

  1. Rub the fish inside and out with salt and pepper.

  2. Stuff the fish; sew up with a soft string; place in the pan.

  3. Put small lumps of butter over it, put a pint of water in the pan, cover the pan while baking, and bake 1/2 hour.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot dish. You can serve with sauce or not, to taste.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

601Calories
14 gProtein
13 gFat
105 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44

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

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [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.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the dressing so it holds inside the fish.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the onion brown in the skillet and the fish stay moist.
Onion
Frying it until light brown adds sweetness and savory depth to the dressing.

The step that matters

Covering the pan while baking. Covering the pan with water in it traps steam, which keeps the fish moist and cooks it gently so the flesh does not dry out before it is done.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter. 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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