Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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 the fish
Remove the skin and bones from the fish and tear the flesh into flakes.
Mix the fish with ⅓ cup of bread crumbs or mashed potatoes, and season with salt, cayenne, and nutmeg.
Moisten the mixture with the sauce from the fish or a little clarified butter.
Fill and bake
Butter scallop shells or small shallow dishes and line them with bread crumbs.
Fill the shells with the fish mixture, cover with more bread crumbs, and dot with small pieces of butter.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes until the surface is browned.
Serve very 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.
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.
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cooked fish
- Forms the main body of the filling, giving the dish its flavor and flaky texture.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and help bind the fish, with extra crumbs forming a browned crust on top.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top crust brown during baking.
The step that matters
Moisten the mixture. The filling needs enough sauce or clarified butter to stay moist while baking. Too little leaves it dry and crumbly, while too much makes it loose and soggy.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, bread, pepper, sauce, butter):
- Capersfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, bread, pepper, sauce, butter. 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.
You might also like
Brown Bread461 recipes
Fried Fish120 recipes
Fish Croquettes81 recipes
White Bread80 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.