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Fried Fish

Fried fish coated in egg and breadcrumbs, fried in lard or dripping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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. Clean and wash the fish thoroughly.

  2. Wrap the fish in a soft cloth until dry.

  3. Beat the egg and wet the fish with it.

  4. Sprinkle fine bread crumbs over the fish.

  5. Repeat the egg and crumb process for a better appearance.

Fry

  1. Heat a thick-bottomed frying pan with lard or dripping until boiling hot.

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

  3. If the fish is cooked but not colored enough, move the pan to the side and drain the fish on a sieve or dish.

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
Binds the bread crumbs to the fish so the coating stays on while frying.
Fine bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
Lard or dripping
Conducts heat to the fish and gives the coating a rich, browned surface.

The step that matters

Heating the fat until boiling hot before frying. Fat that is not hot enough soaks into the coating instead of crisping it, so the fish turns greasy and pale. Very hot fat seals the crumb quickly, keeping the fish moist inside and the coating crisp outside.

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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