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Planked Fish

A whole fish baked on a heated plank with butter, lemon, vegetables, and optional oysters or clams.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Planked 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 plank

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and warm the plank for 5 minutes.

  2. Butter the plank well and place the fish on it, skin side down.

Season and broil

  1. Brush the fish with melted butter and lemon juice.

  2. Broil the fish for about 15 minutes.

  3. Remove the plank for a minute to decorate the fish with tomato slices, green peppers, pimientos, and onions.

  4. Create a border of mashed potatoes around the fish using a pastry tube.

  5. If using, place oysters or clams around the fish and top each with buttered bread crumbs.

  6. Return the plank to the broiler and cook slowly for another 5 minutes until vegetables are done.

  7. If using potatoes, brush them lightly with egg yolk to brown quickly.

Serve

  1. Serve the fish on the plank on a large platter, garnished with lemon slices and parsley.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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 and cooks through under the broiler.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the fish stay tender and brown lightly.
Ripe tomatoes
Contribute juice and acidity that moisten the fish and balance the richness of the butter.
Mashed potatoes
Form a starchy border that holds its shape and browns under the broiler.
Egg yolk
Promotes quick browning of the potato border when brushed on.

The step that matters

Return the plank to the broiler and cook slowly. Fish is delicate and dries out quickly under strong heat, so a brief, gentle finish keeps it moist while the vegetables soften and the potatoes brown.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Plumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, tomato, pepper, onion, potato, bread. 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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