Name: To Boil Fish in Fat
Ingredients: beef suet, mutton suet, or lard; fish (such as Sunfish, Straw Bass, Catfish, Smelt, or Flounders); flour; 1 or more raw eggs; crushed bread or crackers; coarse sea salt; parsley

Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

To Boil Fish in Fat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Heat the suet or lard in a deep pan until boiling hot.
Scale and clean the fish, making transverse cuts along the sides about ½ inch deep.
Wipe the fish with a towel and sprinkle flour over them.
Beat the raw eggs and dip the fish in the egg mixture, then roll in crushed bread or crackers.

Fry and serve

Carefully place the fish in the hot fat without them touching each other.
Fry until they rise to the top and brown.
Remove with a strainer and place on a colander to drain excess grease.
Lightly salt both sides of the fish and serve on a hot plate.
Garnish with parsley that has been dipped in hot grease for crispness.

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.

Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Beef + fishtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together226 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, cooking through in hot fat while the coating browns.
Eggs: Bind the flour and crumb coating so it adheres to the fish during frying.
Bread or crackers: Crushed crumbs form a crisp, browned outer layer when fried.
Flour: Dry coating that helps the egg wash cling and encourages browning.
Suet or lard: Frying fat that conducts heat to cook the fish and crisp the coating.

The step that matters

Spacing the fish in the hot fat. Crowded pieces drop the fat temperature and steam instead of frying, so the coating turns soggy rather than crisp and browned.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, fish, flour, egg, bread):

Capersfits better
Nutmegfits about as well
Parsleythe original
Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, fish, flour, egg, 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.

More fried fish recipes

Breaded 6 Battered 3 Cakes 3 Fillets 3 in Batter 3 Roe 3 See all 169 →

Brown Bread461 recipes

Roast Beef211 recipes

Beef Loaf175 recipes

Corned Beef87 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

To Boil Fish in Fat