Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,118 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: flour, fish, halibut, haddock
Directions
Prepare the fish
Choose a medium-sized fish (bluefish, shad, haddock, halibut) and slice if desired.
Clean the fish, removing all scales.
For the stuffing, combine 1 cup dried crumbs, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, a few drops onion juice, a few drops parsley, 1 teaspoon capers, and finely chopped pickles. Mix the stuffing ingredients in the order given.
Stuff the fish and sew the openings closed.
Shape the fish with skewers to form a letter S and place upright on a baking pan, or lay the fish on its side.
If the fish is not a fatty variety, place strips of salt pork over it or cut gashes in the fish and lay strips of pork in them.
Dredge the fish with flour.
Bake and serve
Bake the fish for one hour in a hot oven, basting frequently with the tried-out fat.
Serve the fish with drawn butter or Hollandaise sauce.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + caperstop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,550 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + parsleytop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together25,834 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + peppertop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together68,463 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + caperstop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,381 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the crumb stuffing and the drawn butter served with the fish.
- Dried crumbs (in the method)
- Form the bulk of the stuffing, soaking up melted butter to hold moisture inside the fish.
- Salt pork
- Its rendered fat bastes the fish during baking, keeping lean flesh moist.
- Flour (in the method)
- Dredging coats the fish surface, helping it brown during baking.
The step that matters
Basting the fish during baking. Lean fish dries out quickly in a hot oven. Frequent basting with the rendered fat keeps the flesh moist and promotes even browning on the surface.
Flavor stand-ins for the capers
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, parsley, butter, pepper):
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Celerybetter flavor fit
- Garlicbetter flavor fit
- Capersthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, parsley, butter, 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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