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Baked Fish

A whole fish seasoned with salt, butter, and water, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Baked Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Open the fish and wash it thoroughly.

  2. Wipe the fish perfectly dry.

  3. Rub the fish all over with coarse sea salt.

Bake

  1. Place the fish in a dripping pan with butter and water.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
The main protein, which turns opaque and flakes as it cooks through in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and helping the fish stay moist as it bakes.
Water
Creates steam in the pan, which helps keep the fish moist while it bakes.

The step that matters

Wipe the fish perfectly dry. Surface moisture makes the fish steam rather than roast, and wet skin resists browning. Salt draws out water, so a dry surface lets the salt season the flesh evenly.

“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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