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Scalloped Fish

A baked fish dish of flaked cod or haddock seasoned with salt, pepper, milk, and butter, served in scalloped tins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Scalloped Fish

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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. Flake the cold cod or haddock.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Moisten with a little milk and stir in a good-sized piece of butter.

  4. Put the mixture into small scalloped-shaped tins.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.

  2. Serve on napkins.

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

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

  2. Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together764 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Haddock + milktop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together355 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold cod or haddock
Forms the bulk of the dish, providing the flaky body of the filling.
Milk
Moistens the fish so the mixture stays tender rather than dry while baking.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Baking until light brown. Baking at 400°F browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, but overbaking dries the fish and the milk can separate. Watch for light browning and remove promptly.

“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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