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Observations on Dressing Fish

A fish preparation that can be boiled, crimped, or fried, seasoned with salt, vinegar, horse-radish, parsley, lemon, egg, bread crumbs, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Observations on Dressing Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean the fish thoroughly if it is not already cleaned.

  2. Soak fresh water fish in strong saltwater to remove muddy smell.

  3. Dry the fish after soaking.

Poach

  1. Add 1 tablespoon of salt to the water for boiling.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar to the water for boiling.

  3. Place the fish in boiling water for crimping.

  4. Add a little cold water to reduce heat.

  5. Simmer the fish for a few minutes.

Coat and fry

  1. Wrap the cleaned fish in a cloth for frying.

  2. Wet the wrapped fish with an egg.

  3. Sprinkle the fish with bread crumbs.

  4. Heat a large quantity of lard or dripping until boiling.

  5. Fry the fish in the boiling lard until light brown.

  6. Drain the fried fish on blotting paper to remove excess grease.

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. 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. Vinegar + radishtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together508 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Is the main component that is cleaned, crimped, and fried until flaky and light brown.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the fish so the coating adheres during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried in hot fat.
Lard or dripping
Conducts heat for frying and browns the coating while adding richness.
Vinegar
Adds a mild acidity to the poaching water that brightens the fish's flavour.

The step that matters

Fry the fish in the boiling lard until light brown. The fat must be fully hot before the fish goes in; cool fat soaks into the coating instead of crisping it, leaving a greasy result.

“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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