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Scalloped Fish

A baked fish dish with a creamy anchovy sauce and breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Scalloped Fish

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Scalloped 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.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan until boiling.

  2. Gradually stir in the flour mixed with the butter until well combined.

  3. Cook the mixture over low heat for 3 minutes, stirring often.

  4. Add the anchovy sauce and pour the mixture over the beaten egg.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the shredded fish in a buttered pudding dish, seasoning each layer.

  2. Cover the fish with the sauce, alternating layers of fish and sauce until all ingredients are used.

  3. Top with salted and peppered bread crumbs and dot with butter.

  4. Bake covered at 350°F (175°C) until bubbling, then uncover and 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.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Anchovy + fishtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy sauce that holds the layers together.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the sauce and helps the flour blend smoothly.
Egg
Enriches the sauce and helps it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Fish
Forms the main body of the dish, layered through the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the sauce over low heat. Flour thickens milk only when it is cooked long enough to gelatinize its starch. Stirring often over low heat prevents lumps and scorching. The egg should be added off the heat or gently, since high heat can cause it to curdle.

“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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