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Planked White Fish

A white fish baked on an oak plank, finished with butter, lemon, and garnished with mashed potatoes, lemon slices, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Planked White Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plank

  1. Heat and oil the oak plank thoroughly.

Bake the fish

  1. Place the fish skin side down on the plank.

  2. Brush the fish with butter or oil.

  3. Bake for about 25 minutes, basting often.

  4. Once done, place the plank on a platter.

Finish and serve

  1. Spread the fish with creamed butter mixed with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

  2. Garnish the edge of the plank with mashed potatoes, lemon slices, and parsley.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently on the plank as its flesh firms and turns opaque.
Butter or oil
Brushed on the fish to add moisture and help prevent it from drying out while baking.
Creamed butter
Spread over the cooked fish to add richness and a smooth, savory finish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances the flavor of the fish.

The step that matters

Bake for about 25 minutes, basting often. Basting repeatedly with fat carries heat across the surface and keeps the fish moist. Without it, the thin areas of the fish can dry out before the thicker parts are fully cooked.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

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