Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Fish Scallop
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a stew pan, combine the shredded cold fish, cream, anchovy sauce, mustard, walnut ketchup, pepper, and salt.
Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally until nearly hot.
Bake and serve
Transfer the mixture to a deep dish and top with bread crumbs and small bits of butter.
Bake in the oven until the top is nearly browned.
Serve hot.
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.
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Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Anchovy + ketchuptop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together479 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Mustard + walnuttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together849 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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, giving the scallop its substance.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, keeping the fish mixture soft and creamy when heated.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven and contrasts with the soft filling.
- Butter
- Melts over the topping, adding fat that aids browning and flavour.
The step that matters
Bake until the top is nearly browned. Baking too long dries the cream mixture and toughens the fish, while too little heat leaves the topping pale and the centre under-heated. Watching the surface lets the crumbs brown through the Maillard reaction without overcooking the filling.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, cream, anchovy, sauce, mustard, ketchup, pepper):
- Beansfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
- Chestnutfits less well
- Sesamefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, cream, anchovy, sauce, mustard, ketchup, pepper. 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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