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 off.
Season the inside with a pinch of salt and pepper, then fill it with stuffing, leaving room for it to swell.
Sew the fish up with a small cord, season the outside with salt and pepper, and dredge it with flour.
Bake and make the gravy
In a fish pan, heat the butter and lard until hot enough to brown.
Lay the fish in the pan and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 45 minutes, basting often.
When done, add ½ cup of hot water to the gravy and let it boil for a minute, stirring well.
Stir in the tomato ketchup.
Cut the cord into short pieces with scissors and carefully remove it.
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 as the bulk of the meal.
- Flour
- Coats the outside of the fish, helping it brown and giving the pan gravy body.
- Butter
- Browns the fish surface in the hot pan and adds richness to the gravy.
- Lard
- Adds fat that withstands high heat for browning the fish before and during baking.
- Tomato ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity to the pan gravy, giving it color and tang.
The step that matters
Leaving room in the stuffing cavity. Stuffing expands as it cooks, so packing it tightly can split the fish and leave the filling dense or unevenly cooked. Loose filling lets heat reach the centre and lets the stuffing swell safely.
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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