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Scorched Fish

Scorched fish is prepared by scorching, seasoning, and frying the fish with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cardamom match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,114 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Scorched Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the scales from the fish and wash it thoroughly.

  2. Scorch the fish on both sides until soft, then remove the black crusts and bones.

Mix and fry

  1. In a bowl, mix the flaked fish with chopped onions, green chillies, mustard oil, and salt.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine the fish with ginger, cumin, pepper, chillies, cardamom, flour, and ginger juice.

  3. Heat ghee in a pan and fry the mixture until golden brown.

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.

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. Ginger + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,114 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cumin + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Ginger + cumintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Onion + cumintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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

Flour
Binds the flaked fish so the mixture holds together while frying.
Mustard oil
Adds fat and a pungent flavour that carries the spices through the fish.
Ginger juice
Adds moisture and sharp aromatic flavour to the fish mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the mixture until golden brown. The mixture is loose and moist, so it can stick or break apart in the pan. Fry over moderate heat in ghee, turning gently, so the surface browns and sets before it falls apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, mustard, ginger, cumin, pepper, cardamom, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, mustard, ginger, cumin, pepper, cardamom, flour. 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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