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Baked White Fish

A whole white fish stuffed with bread crumbs, onion, butter, parsley, and egg, baked with salt pork and served with a catsup sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 White 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. Stuff the cleaned fish with the soaked bread crumbs, onion, butter, parsley, pepper, salt, and beaten egg.

  2. Wrap a piece of cord around the fish to keep the stuffing in.

  3. Place slices of salt pork on top of the fish and sprinkle with pepper and salt.

Bake and serve

  1. Add hot water to the pan and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven, basting frequently.

  2. Bake for about 1 hour or until the fish is a fine brown.

  3. Remove the fish and boil the gravy with catsup, flour mixed with cold water, and lemon juice.

  4. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

White fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole and held together around its stuffing.
Bread crumbs
Soaked and drained, they make the stuffing moist and hold it together inside the fish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing and helps the surface brown.
Beaten egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds its shape during baking.
Salt pork
Lays fat over the fish as it bakes, adding moisture and savory flavor.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the fish instead of running thin.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy. Flour mixed with cold water must be stirred into boiling liquid smoothly; adding it dry or lumpy leaves clumps, and the flour needs to cook through to lose its raw taste and thicken properly.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, bread, butter, parsley, pepper, egg, 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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