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Escalloped Fish

A baked fish dish topped with a creamy milk and corn starch dressing and breadcrumb crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Escalloped Fish

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Escalloped 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.

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil the fish until tender, then remove the bones.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine milk, salt, pepper, butter, and corn starch.

  2. Boil the mixture until it thickens to form a dressing.

Assemble and bake

  1. On a platter, layer the dressing, then the fish, and repeat, finishing with dressing on top.

  2. Sprinkle bread or cracker crumbs over the top.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes and serve on the same platter.

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

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 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
Provides the main body of the dish, flaking into tender pieces within the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the dressing, which gives the dish its creamy moisture.
Corn starch
Thickens the boiled milk into a dressing that holds the layers together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the dressing, softening its flavor and texture.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Forms a crisp, lightly browned topping during baking.

The step that matters

Boil the milk and corn starch until thickened. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the mixture reaches a boil and is stirred. If it stays underheated, the dressing stays thin and the layers will run apart when served.

“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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