Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Fried Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Rub the fish with lemon juice to enhance its whiteness.
Dry the fish thoroughly and dust it with flour.
Dip the floured fish in the beaten egg.
Sprinkle the fish with dry bread crumbs.
Fry
Heat the cooking fat until boiling and fully submerge the fish.
Fry until golden brown and cooked through.
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.
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Lemon + breadtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,445 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turbot or brill
- Firm white fish that forms the main body of the dish and cooks through in the hot fat.
- Flour
- Dry coating that helps the egg and crumbs adhere and encourages browning in the fat.
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumbs to the fish so the coating stays on during frying.
- Dry bread crumbs
- Outer layer that becomes crisp and golden when fried.
The step that matters
Drying the fish before flouring. Surface moisture stops the flour and egg from sticking evenly and turns the coating soggy or patchy. Thorough drying lets the coating adhere and crisp well in hot fat.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, flour, egg, bread):
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonthe original
- Vanillafits about as well
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, flour, 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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