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Fried Fish

A fish fillet coated in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs, fried in lard and served with tomato sauce or lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Fried Fish

Why it works: Wheat and tomato work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 468 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Fried Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut off the head and backbone of the fish, then slice the body into five or six pieces.

  2. Dredge the fish pieces in Indian meal or flour, dip in beaten egg, and roll in bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Heat hot lard or drippings in a thick-bottomed skillet.

  2. Place the fish skin side up in the skillet and fry slowly until light brown.

  3. Turn the fish over to brown the other side, then let them drain.

Serve

  1. Serve with tomato sauce or lemon slices.

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. Wheat + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together468 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  2. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  3. Wheat + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  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

Indian meal or wheat flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the breading adhere to the fish.
Beaten egg
Binds the flour and bread crumbs to the fish pieces.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Hot lard or drippings
Conducts heat to fry the coating and adds richness and browning.

The step that matters

Fry slowly over moderate heat. Frying slowly lets the heat reach the thick fish pieces so they cook through before the breading darkens. Turning once gives an even golden crust on both sides.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, wheat, egg, 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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