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Baked Fish

A whole fish baked with a breadcrumb and butter dressing, salt pork, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale and remove the head of the fish.

  2. Wash the fish thoroughly in cold water.

  3. Soak the fish in cold water with some salt for 1-2 hours.

  4. Rinse and dry the fish.

Stuff and season

  1. Make a dressing by mixing bread crumbs, melted butter, minced parsley, minced onion, salt, pepper, and the yolk of the egg to bind.

  2. Rub salt and pepper inside the fish.

  3. Fill the fish with the dressing.

  4. Secure the opening with toothpicks.

  5. Place slices of salt pork in a dripping pan.

  6. Lay the fish on top of the salt pork.

  7. Dot the fish with butter.

  8. Sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper.

  9. Add hot water to the pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the fish in a hot oven (400°F/200°C) for 3-4 hours, basting 2-3 times.

  2. Serve immediately on a fish platter.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Fish + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together668 recipes

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

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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, cooking through slowly in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing a soft, bulky texture.
Egg
The yolk binds the dressing so it holds together when filled.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the surface brown and stay moist.
Salt pork
Its fat bastes the fish from below and adds savory flavor.

The step that matters

Baking with basting. The fish bakes for a long time in a hot oven, so it can dry out. Basting with the pan juices and fat keeps the surface moist and adds flavor.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Sagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, bread, butter, 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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