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Escalloped Fish

A baked fish dish topped with a white sauce and browned breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Escalloped Fish

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Escalloped Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the white sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour.

  2. Add the cold milk and stir until the mixture thickens.

  3. Stir in the salt and pepper.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish and layer half of the fish in the bottom.

  2. Spread half of the white sauce over the fish.

  3. Add the remaining fish and top with the rest of the white sauce.

  4. Moisten the bread crumbs with melted butter and sprinkle on top.

  5. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 20 minutes, or until the crumbs are nicely browned.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  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
Provides the main body and flavor of the dish, set within the sauce.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and helps the bread crumbs brown in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce that holds the dish together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, giving it body and creaminess.
Stale bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the sauce and fish.

The step that matters

Thickening the white sauce. Flour must be cooked into the melted butter and the cold milk added gradually while stirring, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps. Stirring keeps starch granules dispersed so they swell evenly as the mixture heats.

“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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