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Fried Fish and Potatoes

A dish of fried fish fillets served with fried potatoes, seasoned with salt and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fried Fish and Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean the fish, then cut it as needed.

  2. Sprinkle the fish with salt and let it sit for a few minutes.

  3. Wipe the fish dry.

  4. Beat the egg.

  5. Place flour on a plate.

  6. Dip the fish first in flour, then in egg.

Fry the fish

  1. Heat oil in a frying pan gradually.

  2. Fry the fish gently in hot oil until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side.

  3. If the pan isn't deep enough, turn the fish to fry evenly.

  4. Drain the fish on paper after frying.

  5. Arrange the fish on a dish and garnish with fried or raw parsley.

Prepare and fry the potatoes

  1. Wash and peel the potatoes.

  2. Cut the potatoes into thin rounds or slices.

  3. Do not wash the potatoes again.

  4. Rub the potatoes dry.

  5. Fry the potatoes in hot oil until browned.

  6. Drain the potatoes on paper without adding salt.

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. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Its firm flesh holds together during gentle frying and cooks through to a flaky texture.
Egg
Coats the floured fish, helping the crust bind and brown during frying.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that crisps and browns in the hot oil.
Potatoes
Starchy slices fry to a golden, crisp exterior while the inside turns tender.

The step that matters

Wipe the fish dry before coating. Surface moisture stops flour and egg from sticking evenly and turns the oil steamy, so the coating can slide off or fry unevenly instead of browning.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, flour, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, flour, 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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