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Fish, Scalloped

A baked dish of cold fish coated with a seasoned egg and milk mixture, topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fish, Scalloped

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Carefully pick the fish from the bones.

  2. Moisten the fish with milk and the egg.

  3. Add the mace, flour, anchovy sauce, pepper, and salt.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the mixture in a deep dish or scallop shells.

  2. Cover with bread crumbs and dot with butter.

  3. Brown under a broiler or in a hot oven until heated through.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the fish and moisture into a cohesive mixture that holds its shape.
Flour
Thickens the moistened fish mixture so it holds together rather than running.
Milk
Moistens the fish and keeps the mixture tender as it heats.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns under the broiler or in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the topping and promotes browning.

The step that matters

Browning the topping. Browning depends on heat and fat on the crumb surface. Too little heat leaves the topping pale, while too long can scorch the crumbs before the fish is heated through.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, milk, flour, anchovy, sauce, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, milk, flour, anchovy, sauce, pepper. 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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