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Baked Skate

Baked skate is a fish cooked with onions, butter, vinegar, pepper, salt, and bread-raspings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Charles Elme Francatelli · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Skate

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Chop three onions.

  2. Fry the onions to a light-brown colour in two ounces of butter.

  3. Add half a pint of vinegar, pepper, and salt to the onions.

  4. Allow the mixture to boil on the fire for five minutes.

Assemble

  1. Put the skate in a baking dish.

  2. Pour the sauce over the skate.

  3. Add just enough water to reach the surface of the skate.

  4. Strew a thick coating of bread-raspings on the fish.

Bake

  1. Bake the skate for an hour and a half at rather moderate heat.

By Charles Elme Francatelli. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fat that carries the onion flavour and helps the onions brown lightly.
Onions
Provide sweetness and aroma as they fry and soften in the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sauce and balances the richness of the fish.
Skate (in the method)
The main fish, which becomes tender and flaky as it bakes in the sauce.
Bread-raspings (in the method)
Form a crisp, browned crust over the fish during baking.

The step that matters

Bake the skate for an hour and a half at rather moderate heat. Gentle, long baking lets the thick fish cook through and become tender without drying out, while the surrounding liquid keeps it moist.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Mustardbetter flavor fit
  3. Cabbageabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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