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Mock Fish Stuffed and Baked

A baked mock fish made from corn grits, stuffed with a nut and egg mixture, decorated with nuts and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Peanut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 305 recipes. Both carry acetylpyrazine, which smells roast. The science ↓

Mock Fish Stuffed and Baked

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the grits

  1. In a large pot, bring 6 cups of water to a boil.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and stir in ½ cup of corn grits, stirring until it boils.

  3. Let it boil gently for a few minutes, then place in a steam cooker and steam for 3 to 4 hours.

Make the stuffing

  1. For the stuffing, mix 2 tablespoons zwieola, 1 tablespoon gluten No. 3, 2 tablespoons pecan meal, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 1 tablespoon almond butter, 1 hard‑boiled egg, ½ teaspoon sage, 1 teaspoon grated onion, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Add a little water to make a stiff batter and mix thoroughly.

Shape and bake

  1. Once the corn grits are done, oil a baking tin and spread some cooked grits in the shape of a fish.

  2. Add the stuffing along the length of the fish, creating a trough for the chopped egg yolks seasoned with celery salt.

  3. Cover the egg with the dressing and then with more cooked grits, shaping it into a fish.

  4. Spread with diluted nut butter and use egg‑white slices for gills and mouth, and filberts for eyes.

  5. Press blanched Jordan almonds down the center for dorsal fins and use them to form the tail.

  6. Lard the back with pine nuts.

  7. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, covering with brown paper if it browns too quickly.

  8. Garnish with parsley and curled celery before serving.

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. Peanut + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  2. Sage + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together723 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Peanut + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,043 recipes

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

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn grits
Cooked into a firm base that forms the body of the fish.
Pecan meal
Adds body and nutty flavour to the stuffing mixture.
Peanut butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the stuffing hold together and taste savoury.
Almond butter
Adds fat and nutty flavour, keeping the stuffing moist and tender.
Hard-boiled egg
Adds protein and body, helping the stuffing set firmly.
Egg yolks
Form a rich, creamy filling that contrasts with the stuffing.

The step that matters

Baking with the cover. Brown paper must go over the fish if it darkens too fast, because direct oven heat over 30 minutes can scorch the surface before the grits and stuffing set through.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn grits, peanut, butter, almond, egg, onion, celery):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn grits, peanut, butter, almond, egg, onion, celery. 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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