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Scalloped Fish

Scalloped fish is a baked dish of flaked white fish in a thickened milk sauce topped with cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Scalloped Fish

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scalloped Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the fish

  1. Boil the fish in salted water until cooked.

  2. Drain and remove all bones and skin.

  3. Flake the fish into small pieces.

Make the white sauce

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Dissolve the flour in a little cold milk.

  3. Add it to the hot milk and cook until thickened.

  4. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, celery salt, and butter.

  5. If using, chop the green celery and add it to the sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish.

  2. Layer the white sauce and fish alternately until the dish is filled.

  3. Top with rolled cracker crumbs. Add bits of butter.

  4. Bake until browned.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Cod or white fish
Provides the flaky protein that forms the body of the dish.
Milk
Forms the white sauce that binds the fish and keeps the dish moist.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the layers together.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the sauce and helps the topping brown.

The step that matters

Thickening the white sauce. Flour must be dissolved in cold milk before it meets the hot milk, otherwise it clumps. Cooking it until thickened fully gelatinizes the starch, giving a smooth sauce that holds the layers together instead of running out when baked.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, milk, flour, pepper, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, flour, pepper, 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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