Name: Fish with Parmesan Cheese
Ingredients: ½ pound cold fish, boned and flaked; ¼ teaspoon coarse pepper; 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese; white sauce (enough to make it tolerably stiff); 2 egg yolks; bread crumbs; sippets of toast

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 ↓

Fish with Parmesan Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the filling

In a bowl, combine the flaked fish, coarse pepper, and grated Parmesan cheese.
Mix in enough white sauce to achieve a stiff consistency.

Assemble and bake

Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and smooth the surface with egg yolks.
Sprinkle bread crumbs on top and arrange sippets of toast around the edge.
Bake until thoroughly hot and nicely 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.

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 + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together577 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold fish: Forms the main body of the dish, providing protein and the flaky texture.
White sauce: Binds the flaked fish into a stiff mass that holds its shape when baked.
Egg yolks: Enrich the surface and help it set and brown during baking.
Grated parmesan cheese: Adds savoury flavour and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Bread crumbs: Form a crisp, golden topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Mix in enough white sauce to achieve a stiff consistency. Too little sauce leaves the filling loose and watery, so it will not hold its shape; too much makes it heavy. The mixture should be firm enough to spread and hold its form while baking.

“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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Fish with Parmesan Cheese