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Baked White Fish

A whole white fish stuffed, seasoned, dredged, and baked with butter, lard, and tomato catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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

  1. Wash the fish in cold water and dry it thoroughly.

  2. Season the inside with a pinch of salt and pepper, then fill it with stuffing, leaving room for it to swell.

  3. Sew the fish up with a small cord, season the outside with salt and pepper, and dredge it with flour.

Bake

  1. In a fish pan, heat the butter and lard until hot enough to brown.

  2. Place the fish in the pan and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 45 minutes, basting often.

Finish the sauce

  1. When done, add ½ cup of hot water to the pan and let it boil for a minute, stirring well.

  2. Stir in the tomato catsup and carefully cut the cord to remove it from the fish.

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

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

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  5. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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, cooked whole around its stuffing.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together when sliced and served.
Bread
Provides the bulk and soft texture of the stuffing, absorbing moisture from the fish.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the fish brown in the hot pan.
Flour
Coats the outside of the fish, helping it brown and form a light crust.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma to the stuffing as they cook.

The step that matters

Heating the butter and lard until hot enough to brown. The fat must be hot before the floured fish goes in. Hot fat sears the flour coating and starts browning, while a cool pan lets the fish soak up grease and turn pale and soggy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, flour, butter, tomato, bread, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, flour, butter, tomato, bread, egg. 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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