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Scalloped Fish

Fish baked in scallop shells with butter, anchovy sauce, breadcrumbs, parsley, and melted butter topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Scalloped Fish

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Scalloped Fish

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Remove bones from the fish and mix it with anchovy sauce, salt, pepper, and parsley.

  3. Prepare clean scallop shells.

  4. Place a layer of melted butter or fish sauce at the bottom of each shell.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add a layer of the fish mixture, forming little mounds.

  2. Cover each mound with bread crumbs.

  3. Top each mound with a piece of butter.

  4. Place the shells on a baking dish.

  5. Bake for about 10 minutes until the bread crumbs are golden brown.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the savory main filling that is shaped into mounds in each shell.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the crumbs brown as it melts.
Anchovy sauce
Adds concentrated savory, salty flavor to the fish mixture.

The step that matters

Covering the mounds with bread crumbs and butter. Crumbs and butter form the topping that browns and crisps in the oven. Spreading them evenly over each mound keeps the fish moist below while the top turns golden.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, anchovy, sauce, pepper, bread):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, anchovy, sauce, pepper, 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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