Why it works: Ketchup and sauce 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 ↓
Baked Fish
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Soak the fish in cold water with a little coarse sea salt for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place a gridiron over a dripping pan with a little hot water.
Bake and baste
Bake the fish for about 30 minutes for small fish or 1 hour for large fish.
Baste the fish with butter just before it is done and brown the top.
Make the sauce and serve
In a separate bowl, mix the gravy from the dripping pan with ketchup, pungent sauce, and lemon juice.
Thicken the sauce with brown flour moistened with a little cold water.
Serve the fish with the sauce, garnished with parsley and currant jelly.
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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Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently by dry oven heat.
- Butter
- Adds fat and moisture to the surface and helps the top brown.
- Ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity to the sauce.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances its richness.
- Brown flour
- Thickens the sauce as its starch swells when moistened and heated.
The step that matters
Thicken the sauce with brown flour moistened with a little cold water. Flour must be mixed smooth with cold water before it goes into the hot sauce, otherwise it clumps. Starch granules swell and thicken the liquid only once heated, so the sauce should be simmered briefly after adding it.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, ketchup, sauce, lemon, flour, parsley):
- Limefits better
- Orangefits better
- Avocadofits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, ketchup, sauce, lemon, flour, parsley. 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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