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Fish Baked with Tomato Sauce

A baked fish coated in crumbed batter and topped with a tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 29,058 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Fish Baked with Tomato Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash and dry the fish thoroughly.

  2. Dip the fish in beaten eggs, then roll in cracker crumbs.

  3. Dip again in eggs and roll in crumbs once more.

  4. Place the fish in a buttered baking pan.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. In a pot, combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, red pepper, and salt; cook down until reduced by half.

  2. Rub the tomato mixture through a sieve and pour it hot over the fish.

Bake

  1. Dot the top of the fish with bits of butter.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven, basting often and adding a little water if necessary.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,090 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in the oven with the sauce.
Eggs
Bind the cracker crumbs to the fish so the coating adheres during baking.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that helps brown the outside of the fish.
Tomatoes
Provide the base of the sauce, adding acidity and moisture that keeps the fish moist.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma to the tomato sauce as it cooks down.
Garlic
Adds aroma and savory flavor to the tomato sauce.

The step that matters

Basting and adding water while baking. Fish is lean and dries out quickly in the oven. Frequent basting with the sauce and a little water keeps the surface moist and prevents the coating and sauce from scorching or drying.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

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

  1. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  2. Thymebetter flavor fit
  3. Capersbetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, tomato, onion, garlic, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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