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Baked Fish with Tomato Sauce

A whole fish baked with tomato sauce, butter, salt, pepper, and a splash of boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Fish with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the fish in a dripping pan.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Add small lumps of butter and pour the tomato catsup over the top.

  5. Just before baking, add a little boiling water.

Bake and serve

  1. Baste frequently while baking for one hour.

  2. When tender and nicely browned, carefully remove to a warm 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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Fish + tomatotop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hepten-3-one (metal).

  4. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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, becoming tender and flaky as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the fish stay juicy and brown during baking.
Tomato catsup
Supplies sweetness, acidity and color to the sauce that forms around the fish.

The step that matters

Basting frequently while baking. Repeated basting keeps the surface moist so the fish does not dry out, and the juices help the top brown evenly over the hour of baking.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, butter. 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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