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Baked Fish

A whole fish stuffed with bread, egg, butter, sage, and optional onion juice, baked with salt pork.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Soak stale bread in cold water for 20 minutes, then press dry.

  2. Mix soaked bread with egg, melted butter, sage or dressing, and onion juice if using.

Prepare the fish

  1. Fill the fish with the stuffing and sew it up with needle and thread.

  2. Flour the fish and season with coarse sea salt.

  3. Place thin slices of salt pork in the bottom of a baking dish and on top of the fish.

Bake and baste

  1. Baste the fish often with the cooking juices, adding water if necessary.

  2. Bake for 15 minutes per pound in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Sage + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Soaked and pressed bread forms the body of the stuffing, soaking up moisture and holding it together.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds its shape when the fish is filled and baked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing, carrying flavor and keeping it moist.
Salt pork
Renders fat over the fish during baking, adding moisture and savory flavor.
Flour
Dusted on the fish's surface, it helps the skin brown and seasonings cling.

The step that matters

Basting the fish often. Fish is lean and dries out quickly in the oven. Spooning the cooking juices over it adds moisture and carries heat across the surface, keeping the flesh tender. Adding water when the juices run low prevents scorching and drying.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, bread, egg, butter, sage, flour, pork):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, bread, egg, butter, sage, flour, 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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