Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Frying Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the fish into 1-inch thick slices.
Dredge the fish in flour or coat with egg and bread crumbs.
Fry and serve
Heat plenty of fat in a pan.
Fry the fish for about 15 minutes, turning to cook both sides until golden.
Drain the fried fish on a cloth.
Serve garnished with fried parsley.
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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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,588 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky, moist interior inside a crisp coating.
- Flour
- Dries the fish surface so it browns and crisps when fried.
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumbs to the fish so the coating adheres during frying.
- Bread crumbs
- Forms a crisp, golden outer crust when fried in fat.
- Sweet dripping or lard
- Conducts heat for frying and adds fat that browns the coating and adds richness.
The step that matters
Fry the fish for about 15 minutes, turning to cook both sides until golden.. Fat must be hot enough to brown the coating quickly; if it is too cool, the fish absorbs grease and turns soggy. Turning ensures both sides cook through evenly.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, flour, egg, bread, pepper):
- Capersfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Turmericfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, flour, egg, bread, pepper. 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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