Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Baked White 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
Wash the fish in cold water and dry it.
Season the inside with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Fill the fish with stuffing, leaving room for it to swell.
Sew the fish with a small cord.
Season the outside with salt and pepper.
Dredge the fish with flour.
Bake and serve
Heat the butter and lard in a fish pan until hot enough to brown.
Lay the fish in the pan.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 45 minutes, basting often.
Add ½ cup of hot water to the pan and let it boil for a minute, stirring well.
Stir in the tomato ketchup before serving.
Cut the cord into short pieces and carefully remove the cord from the fish.
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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Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Fish + tomatotop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together213 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hepten-3-one (metal).
Flour and butter 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
- White fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through in the oven while the stuffing warms.
- Flour
- Forms a dry coating that helps the skin brown and crisp in the hot fat.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour and helps the surface brown in the hot pan.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tolerates high heat, helping the surface brown without burning.
- Tomato ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity to the pan liquid, giving a tangier, darker sauce.
The step that matters
Heating the butter and lard until hot enough to brown. The fat must be hot before the floured fish goes in so the coating sears and browns rather than soaking up grease and steaming. Starting with cool fat leads to a pale, greasy crust.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, flour, butter, ketchup):
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, flour, butter, ketchup. 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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