Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Baked Fish
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the fish
Scrape and wash the fish if not already scraped, then rub with 1 tablespoon of salt.
Crush crackers or bread crumbs finely and mix with parsley, chopped pork, salt, and pepper. Moisten the mixture with cold water.
Stuff the mixture into the fish and fasten with a skewer.
Butter a baking sheet and place it in a baking pan.
Cut gashes in the fish and insert strips of the remaining pork into the gashes.
Bake and serve
Place the fish in the baking pan and dredge with flour, salt, and pepper.
Cover the bottom of the pan with hot water.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour, basting every 15 minutes with the pan gravy and dredging with flour, salt, and pepper each time. Renew the water in the pan as needed to keep it covered.
Once cooked, lift the fish onto the buttered sheet and slide onto the serving dish.
Pour Hollandaise sauce, tomato sauce, or your choice of sauce around it and garnish with parsley.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Fish + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together668 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Bread + porktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,371 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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 whole and stuffed.
- Crackers or bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and bind the stuffing so it holds together while baking.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the fish as it renders.
- Flour
- Dredged over the fish to help form a light browned crust and thicken the pan gravy.
The step that matters
Keeping the pan water covered. Hot water in the pan creates a moist, gentle heat around the fish, so it cooks without drying. If the water runs low, the bottom can scorch and the fish dries out, so renew it as needed.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, bread, pork, pepper, flour):
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Thymefits about as well
- Sagefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, bread, pork, pepper, flour. 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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