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Fried Fish

Fried fish prepared by seasoning, coating with oatmeal or batter, and frying until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Fried Fish

Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Fried Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the head and tail from the herring, split them open, and take out the bones.

  2. Wipe the fish with a damp cloth.

  3. Season the cut sides with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Dip the fish in milk, then coat with Scotch oatmeal.

Make the batter

  1. For batter-fried fish, mix flour, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

  2. Gradually stir in salad oil, beaten egg, and milk.

  3. Beat well for ten minutes.

  4. If too thick, add a little tepid water.

  5. Let it stand before using.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat fat in a frying pan until hot but not burning.

  2. Cut into pieces.

  3. Coat with batter before frying.

  4. Fry the fish two at a time for about ten minutes until golden.

  5. Drain on paper and serve hot.

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.

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. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky interior inside a crisp coating.
Scotch oatmeal
Forms a coarse, crunchy coating that browns when fried.
Flour
Thickens the batter and helps it cling to the fish while it fries.
Bread crumbs
Adds crispness and browning to the batter coating.
Beaten egg
Binds the batter and helps it set into a coating during frying.
Milk
Moistens the coating so the dry ingredients stick and brown evenly.

The step that matters

Heat the fat until hot but not burning. If the fat is too cool, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy; if it smokes or burns, the outside darkens before the fish cooks through.

“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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