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Fish Stuffed and Baked

A whole fish stuffed with a breadcrumb and onion mixture, baked with butter, claret, and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fish Stuffed and Baked

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

  1. Trim the fins of the fish and wipe it clean and dry, inside and out.

  2. For the dressing, melt a large lump of butter in a frying pan without cooking it.

  3. Add enough dried bread crumbs to fill the fish and stir until they absorb the butter.

  4. Add a finely chopped onion fried in butter, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, lemon juice, a pinch of cayenne, and salt.

  5. Fill the fish with dressing and sew it up with coarse thread.

Bake

  1. Place the sewn fish in a roasting pan, dot with butter, and add boiling water.

  2. Season the fish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes, basting frequently.

  3. Add the claret, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice, then continue baking until done, about 45 minutes total.

  4. The fish is done when the flesh easily separates from the bone.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Transfer the fish to a hot dish and garnish with parsley and lemon.

  2. Place the roasting pan on the stove, adding more water if necessary and the claret.

  3. Bring to a boil, then stir in 1 teaspoon of butter and 2 teaspoons of flour mixed with some sauce.

  4. Boil for 2 minutes, strain over the fish, and serve.

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 + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Whole fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in its own juices and basting liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the dressing and keeping the fish from drying out.
Bread crumbs (in the method)
Absorb butter and juices to form a moist, tender stuffing that fills the fish cavity.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into a smooth sauce when cooked briefly with the liquid.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savoury, tangy depth to the pan sauce.
Claret
Adds acidity and fruity flavour to the pan sauce as it reduces with the juices.

The step that matters

Checking doneness. Fish overcooks quickly and turns dry and firm. Flesh that separates easily from the bone shows it is cooked through, so check early rather than relying only on the timer.

“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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