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 ↓
Observations on Dressing Fish
Ingredients
Directions
If the fish is not cleaned, ensure it is slit low enough and thoroughly washed.
Add coarse sea salt to the boiling water for the fish.
For cod, add 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar to firm the flesh.
Hang cod, haddock, or whiting for a few hours with salt in their gills before dressing.
Preserve the roe, milt, and liver whole and serve them prominently.
Boil fish in cold hard water, skimming off any foam when it boils.
Keep the kettle covered to maintain color and prevent dust.
For broiling, heat the gridiron and rub the bars with butter.
Wash the fish, rub with vinegar, dry with a cloth, and coat with flour before broiling.
For frying, cleanse, dry, and flour the fish, then place it before the fire briefly before frying.
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.
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,036 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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Vinegar + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,652 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
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