Name: Breaded Fish
Ingredients: any kind of fish, skin and bones removed; salt; pepper; 1 beaten egg; dried bread crumbs; cooking oil (like cottonseed oil)

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 ↓

Breaded Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cut the fish into pieces about 4 inches long and 3 inches wide.
Season the fish pieces with salt and pepper.
Dip each piece in the beaten egg, then roll in dried bread crumbs.
Arrange the fish in a frying basket without stacking them.
Cook in hot oil at 350°F (175°C) for 3.5 minutes.
Serve with tartar sauce or black butter.

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.

Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + cottonseedtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,948 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).