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Dressed Fish

A fish dish mixed with cream, mustard, anchovy essence, ketchup, pepper, and butter, then browned under a broiler.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Dressed Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the fish from the bones and cut into small pieces.

  2. In a bowl, mix the fish with cream, anchovy essence, ketchup, pepper, and salt.

Make the sauce

  1. Rub flour into butter, then heat in a stewpan until hot.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture into a serving dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and brown under a broiler.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the flaky texture that carries the sauce.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the fish a smooth, creamy coating.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, and with flour helps thicken the mixture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream mixture so it clings to the fish.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns under the broiler.

The step that matters

Browning under the broiler. Bread crumbs can burn quickly under high direct heat while the dish underneath stays cool. Watch closely so the topping turns golden rather than dark, and the dish is heated through.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, cream, ketchup, pepper, butter, flour, bread):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, cream, ketchup, pepper, butter, flour, bread. 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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