Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Baked Halibut
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
Soak the halibut in a mixture of salt and water for 2 hours.
Wipe the fish dry and score the outer skin.
Bake
Place the halibut in a baking pan and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven, basting often with melted butter and water.
Bake until a fork easily penetrates the fish and it is a fine brown.
Make the gravy and serve
In the dripping pan, combine the gravy with a little boiling water, Worcestershire sauce, walnut ketchup, and lemon juice.
Thicken the mixture with browned flour mixed with cold water, boil once, and serve.
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.
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Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Ketchup + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Halibut
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky texture when baked.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture when melted and basted over the fish during baking.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the pan juices into a gravy once mixed with cold water and boiled.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Adds savory, tangy depth to the pan gravy.
- Walnut ketchup
- Adds deep, savory acidity and aroma to the pan gravy.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the pan gravy.
The step that matters
Bake until a fork easily penetrates the fish and it is a fine brown. Fish is done when its proteins have set and it flakes easily; overbaking dries the flesh and makes it tough. Frequent basting with butter and water keeps the surface moist while it browns.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sauce, walnut, ketchup, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Lemonthe original
- Coconutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sauce, walnut, ketchup, 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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