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Deviled Fish

A baked fish and egg mixture seasoned with salt, pepper, parsley, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Deviled Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove skin and bones from the fish and flake it lightly.

  2. In a bowl, combine the fish, salt, pepper, parsley, and chopped hard-boiled eggs.

  3. Butter ramekins or small cups and nearly fill them with the fish mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the raw eggs and mix with the milk, then pour over the fish mixture.

  2. Sprinkle with buttered bread crumbs and bake at 350 °F (175 °C) for 15 minutes.

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.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raw eggs
Set when baked, binding the custard and holding the fish mixture together.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the egg custard so it bakes tender rather than dry.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a firm, sliceable texture to the fish filling.
Cold cooked fish
Forms the main body of the filling and provides the savory flavor.

The step that matters

Pour the egg and milk mixture gently over the fish. Eggs set into a custard when heated, so the mixture should be poured evenly and not overfilled. Overbaking at high heat makes the egg curdle and turn rubbery.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, pepper, milk, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits less well
  4. Cinnamonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, pepper, milk, bread. 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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