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 ↓
Frying Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and dry the fish with a clean cloth an hour before cooking.
Wet the fish with ale or milk, or beat an egg and spread it over the fish.
Sprinkle the fish with bread crumbs or raspings.
Fry
Heat plenty of clarified dripping or lard in a frying pan until it smokes.
Fry the fish for about 5 minutes until brown on one side.
Carefully turn the fish and fry for another 4-5 minutes.
Remove the fish and place it on a drainer, turning it to dry the fat.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Small fresh-water fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through while the coating crisps.
- Egg
- Binds the crumb coating to the fish so it adheres during frying.
- Bread crumbs or raspings
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
- Clarified dripping or lard
- Conducts high heat to brown and crisp the coating while sealing in moisture.
The step that matters
Heating the fat until it smokes. Fat that is not hot enough lets the coating soak up oil and turn greasy instead of crisp. Fat at a smoking point sears the crumbs quickly, so they brown before the fish dries out.
“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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