Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Baked Fish
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Clean the fish thoroughly and wipe it dry.
Stuff the fish with bread crumbs moistened with melted butter, salt, pepper, and raisins, then tie or sew the fish closed.
Bake and serve
Season the outside with salt and pepper.
Dredge the fish with flour.
If using, lay strips of bacon over the fish.
Bake for 45 minutes, or steam for the same time if omitting bacon.
Serve with drawn butter sauce.
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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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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).
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, cooking to flaky tenderness inside the stuffing.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb melted butter and fill the cavity, giving the stuffing a moist, soft texture.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the bread crumb stuffing and helps it stay tender.
- Flour
- Dry coating on the outside that helps the surface brown during baking.
- Breakfast bacon
- Optional strips laid over the fish that add fat, savoury flavour and some browning.
The step that matters
Tie or sew the fish closed after stuffing. If the cavity is not closed securely, the stuffing can loosen and fall out during baking or steaming, and the fish may cook unevenly around it.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, bread, butter, pepper, flour, sauce):
- Lemonfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, bread, butter, pepper, flour, sauce. 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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