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Fillets Baked with Custard or Tomatoes

Baked fish fillets cooked in a custard or tomato sauce, seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, thyme, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,907 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fillets Baked with Custard or Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Beat two eggs, and add to them 2 cupfuls of milk, 1 salt spoonful of salt, 1 salt spoonful of pepper, 1 salt spoonful of nutmeg, and 3 soda crackers rolled to powder.

  2. Remove the fillets from any white fish, dredge them with salt and pepper, and lay them in a baking pan, one on top of the other.

Bake the fish

  1. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into the pan with the fish, and set it in the oven.

  2. When the butter is melted, add one half of the milk mixture, and baste the fish with it frequently.

  3. When the custard becomes set, add a little more of the milk, and continue until the fish is cooked.

Serve

  1. Lift the fish carefully from the pan with a pancake turner and broad knife. Place it on a hot dish, and pile on the top the flakes of custard.

Tomato variation

  1. Instead of the milk mixture, tomato may be used if preferred.

  2. Add to one half can of tomato 1 teaspoonful of salt, 1/2 teaspoonful of thyme, 1/4 teaspoonful of pepper, 1 slice of onion, 1 bay leaf, and 3 cloves.

  3. The whole of the tomato mixture may be put in the pan as soon as the butter is melted.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

928Calories
30 gProtein
28 gFat
140 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
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 Mary Ronald. 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. Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a custard that forms the topping over the fish.
Milk
Forms the liquid custard base and keeps the fish moist while it bakes.
Soda crackers
Thicken the custard slightly and add body to the milk mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the fish from sticking to the pan.
Tomato
Offers an acidic, flavourful alternative liquid in place of the milk mixture.

The step that matters

Adding the milk mixture after the custard sets. Basting with the milk mixture while the custard is still liquid keeps the fish moist, but adding more liquid once the custard has set helps the fish cook through without drying. Adding it too early can leave the custard watery and unset.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, pepper, nutmeg, butter, thyme, egg, tomato):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, pepper, nutmeg, butter, thyme, egg, tomato. 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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