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Baked Fish

A baked fish coated with soaked stale bread, flour, pepper, salt, and tomato.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Baked Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crumb

  1. Soak the stale bread in cold water until soft, then press out all the water.

  2. Season the bread with pepper, coarse sea salt, and thyme.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread the seasoned bread in a thin layer in well-greased baking pans.

  2. Clean and dry the fish.

  3. Place the fish in the pans.

  4. Dredge the fish with flour, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  5. Add a small quantity of tomatoes or tomato juice.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes, or until done.

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. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  2. Thyme + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  4. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  5. Bread + fishtop 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

Stale bread
Soaked and pressed, it forms the moist, absorbent base that holds the fish and seasoning.
Fish
The main protein, which cooks through in the oven while resting on the bread layer.
Flour
Dredging coats the fish surface, helping it brown and sealing in moisture while baking.
Tomatoes or tomato juice
Adds moisture and acidity to the pans, flavouring the fish and bread as it bakes.

The step that matters

Drying the fish before dredging. Surface water stops flour from adhering evenly and turns into steam, which keeps the coating pale and soggy instead of lightly browned.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

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