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Baked Fish

A whole fish baked with a breadcrumb stuffing, onion, and optional tomatoes, finished in stock or dripping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Summer savory and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 214 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Prepare a stuffing by mixing bread crumbs with enough butter, lard, or beef dripping to make it moist. Season with pepper, salt, and herbs.

  3. Clean and dry the fish, then lightly fill it with the stuffing and sew up the opening.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the fish in a baking pan and rub it with butter, lard, or beef dripping. Dredge the fish with flour, bread crumbs, or rolled cracker.

  2. Top with thin slices of onion, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and optionally add tomatoes for flavor.

  3. Pour ½ pint of stock or beef dripping into the pan, ensuring some gets under the fish.

  4. Bake for 40-50 minutes, basting frequently, and serve with fish gravy.

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. Summer savory + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together214 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Summer savory + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 and carries the stuffing while it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb fat and moisture in the stuffing, keeping it moist and tender during baking.
Butter, lard, or beef dripping
Adds fat that keeps the fish moist and helps the surface brown in the oven.
Onion
Releases sweetness and aroma as it bakes into the fish and pan juices.
Stock or beef dripping
Adds liquid to the pan that keeps the fish moist and forms the base of the gravy.

The step that matters

Bake for 40-50 minutes, basting frequently. Fish is lean and dries out quickly in the oven. Regular basting with the fat and liquid in the pan keeps the flesh moist and helps the surface brown evenly.

Swap the summer savory

The recipe marks summer savory as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, bread, butter, pepper, thyme, sage, flour):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Summer savorythe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, bread, butter, pepper, thyme, sage, 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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