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Scalloped Perch

A fish dish of perch baked in shells with milk, mustard, anchovy sauce, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Scalloped Perch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a small saucepan, mix the cold perch with milk, mustard, anchovy sauce, salt, and pepper.

  2. Stir the mixture over medium heat for a few minutes until warmed through.

Assemble and bake

  1. Transfer the mixture into scallop shells.

  2. Sprinkle grated breadcrumbs thickly over the top of each shell.

  3. Dot each shell with small pieces of butter.

  4. Brown the shells under a broiler until golden.

Serve

  1. Garnish with lemon slices and parsley, and serve hot.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Perch
Provides the main protein, which sets and holds the creamy filling together when warmed.
Milk
Forms the moist, creamy base that binds the fish into a spoonable filling.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns under the broiler.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the breadcrumb topping brown evenly.

The step that matters

Brown the shells under a broiler until golden. The broiler browns the breadcrumbs and butter quickly. Watch closely, because the topping can scorch before the filling is heated through.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, anchovy, sauce, pepper, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, anchovy, sauce, pepper, butter. 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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