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To Bake Fish

A fish baked with salt pork, cracker crumbs, butter, cheese, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Bake Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place 2-3 slices of salt pork in the bottom of a baking pan to prevent sticking.

  3. If using a rack, place the fish on the rack.

Coat and bake

  1. Cover the fish with buttered cracker crumbs seasoned with salt, pepper, lemon juice, chopped parsley, and onion juice.

  2. Alternatively, sprinkle the fish with flour, salt, pepper, and small pieces of butter.

  3. Five minutes before removing from the oven, cover the top with grated cheese and a sprinkle of paprika.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 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

Salt pork
Renders fat into the pan, keeping the fish from sticking and adding savoury flavour.
Buttered cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that helps protect the fish and add texture.
Butter
Adds fat that promotes browning and richness on the surface.
Grated cheese
Melts over the top and browns lightly, adding flavour and a golden crust.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish and coating.

The step that matters

Adding the cheese and paprika five minutes before removing. Cheese contains sugars and proteins that brown quickly under oven heat, so adding it too early can scorch before the fish is cooked through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, fish, pepper, lemon, parsley, flour, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, fish, pepper, lemon, parsley, flour, 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.

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