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Fish Savoury

A baked dish of fish and rice stuffed into tomatoes, served in a paper bag.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fish Savoury

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Soak stale bread in cold water for 1-2 hours, then drain and press dry.

  2. Beat the bread with a fork and season with pepper, paprika, coarse sea salt, and ground mace or lemon zest.

  3. Add cold fish and the beaten egg, mixing thoroughly.

Stuff the tomatoes

  1. Cut the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds and pulp.

  2. Fill the tomatoes with the fish mixture.

  3. Mix the cooked rice with the tomato pulp until it turns a pretty red color.

Bake and serve

  1. Spread the colored rice on a greased paper bag, leaving the opening wide for the stuffed tomatoes.

  2. Embed the tomatoes in the rice, placing bits of butter on top.

  3. Close the bag and slide it into a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes.

  4. Carefully dish up to preserve the appearance, slitting the bag without disturbing the rice.

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. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 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

Stale bread
Soaked and pressed, it binds the fish mixture and keeps it tender rather than dense.
Cold fish
Forms the main filling; keeping it cold helps it stay firm and easier to handle.
Eggs
Sets the fish and bread mixture so the filling holds its shape when baked.
Ripe firm tomatoes
Act as the edible shells that hold the filling and release juices as they cook.
Cooked rice
Absorbs tomato pulp and juices, forming a moist bed that cushions the tomatoes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and gentle browning on the tomato tops during baking.

The step that matters

Mixing the fish with the bread and egg. Mixing thoroughly while the fish is cold distributes the binder evenly, so the filling sets uniformly instead of crumbling or turning watery when baked.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, fish, egg, tomato, rice, butter. 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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