Why it works: Fish and pork work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 668 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Baked Fish
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 the fish
Clean, dry, and stuff the fish with your choice of stuffing, then sew it closed.
Use a trussing needle to shape the fish into an 'S' by running it through the head, middle, and tail.
Place the fish on a greased baking sheet or use cloth strips to lift it out later.
Grease the baking sheet with salt pork fat and place pieces of pork under the fish.
Sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper, rub with soft butter, and make gashes in the back to insert narrow strips of pork.
Bake and serve
Dredge the fish with flour and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned, basting often.
When done, carefully lift the fish onto a hot platter, remove the trussing needle or threads, and take out the salt pork.
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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Fish + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together668 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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
- Fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through to flaky flesh in the oven.
- Salt pork fat
- Adds fat and savory flavor, keeping the fish moist as it bakes.
- Soft butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the skin and helps it brown.
- Flour
- Dries the surface and helps the skin brown and form a light crust.
The step that matters
Baking until browned with frequent basting. Basting keeps the surface moist and carries fat over the skin, promoting even browning. Too little basting can dry the thin flesh before the fish cooks through, while the fish should be removed as soon as it is done to avoid overcooking.
“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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