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Fried Fish

Fried fish coated in egg and breadcrumbs, fried in lard until golden.

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

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fried Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wrap the cleaned fish in a soft cloth and dry it thoroughly.

  2. Beat the egg.

  3. Wet the fish with the beaten egg.

  4. Sprinkle fine bread crumbs over the fish.

  5. Repeat with egg and crumbs for a better appearance.

Fry

  1. Heat a thick-bottomed frying pan with a large quantity of boiling hot lard or dripping.

  2. Plunge the fish into the hot fat and fry until golden brown.

  3. If the fish is cooked but not browned, move the pan to the side of the fire to finish cooking.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  3. Radish + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together120 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Radish + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together174 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Beaten egg acts as a binding wash that helps the bread crumbs stick to the fish.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that protects the fish and browns in the hot fat.
Lard or dripping
Frying fat that conducts heat quickly, browning the coating and cooking the fish through.

The step that matters

Drying the fish before coating. Surface moisture keeps the egg and crumbs from adhering evenly and can make the hot fat spatter. Drying the fish thoroughly helps the coating stay on and crisp during frying.

Swap the radish

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Radishthe original
  4. Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, bread, horse, parsley, lemon. 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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