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Stuffing for Fish

A savory mixture of onions, butter, bread, eggs, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper used to stuff fish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Stuffing for Fish

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffing for Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stuffing

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter and cook the onions until soft.

  2. Soak the bread in cold water briefly, then squeeze out excess water and add to the skillet.

  3. Stir in the parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, mixing well.

  4. Remove from heat, beat the egg yolks, and stir them into the mixture.

Finish and fill

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them in just before filling the fish.

  2. Ensure the stuffing is warm when used.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks bind the stuffing and whites, beaten stiff, lighten its texture.
Bread
Soaked and squeezed, it adds body and moisture to the stuffing.
Butter
Fat that carries the onions and adds rich flavour.
Onions
Softened in butter, they add sweetness and savoury depth.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold air that gives lightness. Folding gently and adding them just before filling keeps that air from collapsing, so the stuffing stays light.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread, egg, parsley, nutmeg, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, egg, parsley, nutmeg, pepper. 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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