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Fried Fish

Fish fillets coated in cracker crumbs and beaten egg, fried briefly then baked with butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Fried Fish

Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fried Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the fish fillets for a few moments in a covered pan.

  2. Dip each piece in cracker crumbs and beaten egg.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the coated fish in a dripping pan.

  2. Bake in the oven, basting frequently with melted butter and water.

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

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,782 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish fillets
The main protein, which cooks through in the oven under its coating.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during baking.
Egg
Binds the cracker crumbs to the fish so the coating stays in place.
Melted butter
Adds fat that helps the coating brown and gives a rich flavor.

The step that matters

Dipping the fish in egg and crumbs. The beaten egg acts as a glue, so the crumbs must fully cover each piece to stick. Patchy coverage lets the coating fall off or burn unevenly in the oven.

“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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