Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Fried Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the fish into slices about 1 inch thick.
Place flour on one sheet of paper and bread crumbs on another.
Beat the egg in a plate.
Season the bread crumbs with salt and pepper.
Coat and fry
Coat the fish in flour, dip in the beaten egg, then roll in the bread crumbs.
Heat dripping in a frying pan until smoking.
Cook the fish for 7-8 minutes on both sides.
Serve
Serve on a hot dish garnished with parsley.
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.
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Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg 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
- Cod fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky, moist texture when fried.
- Egg
- Acts as a binder so the flour and bread crumbs stick to the fish.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.
- Dripping
- Conducts heat in the pan and adds richness and browning to the coating.
The step that matters
Heating the dripping until smoking before frying. The fat must be very hot so the coating sears quickly and crisps instead of absorbing oil and turning greasy. Adding fish to cooler fat leads to sticking and soggy coating.
“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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