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Baked Fish

A fish baked with a breadcrumb and parsley stuffing, topped with salt pork, served with a cream gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Pour boiling water over the fish to remove scales, then scrape with a knife.

  2. Mix bread crumbs, chopped parsley, onions, salt, pepper, beaten egg, and enough milk or water to moisten to make a dressing.

  3. Stuff the dressing into the fish, filling the body and gills, then sew it up.

  4. Score the fish across and lay thin slices of salt pork on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Add a little water to a baking pan, place the fish on a grate, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes or until done.

  2. Make a gravy from the drippings in the pan, thicken slightly, and add 1 cup of cream while cooking.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 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

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole so the stuffing heats through.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body so it holds its shape.
Egg
Binds the stuffing together as it cooks and sets.
Salt pork
Melts during baking, adding fat and flavor that moistens the fish.
Cream (in the method)
Adds richness and body to the gravy made from the pan drippings.

The step that matters

Bake until done. Fish cooks quickly and becomes dry and firm past doneness, while the stuffing needs enough heat to set. Checking for doneness at the stated time keeps the fish moist.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, bread, parsley, pepper, egg, milk, pork):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, bread, parsley, pepper, egg, milk, pork. 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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