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Dressed Fish

A sole fish baked with tomato sauce, butter, breadcrumbs, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Dressed Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Assemble and bake

  1. Peel and slice tomatoes thinly, layering them over the sole alternately.

  2. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and about 1 ounce of butter over the fish.

  3. Add a few brown bread crumbs mixed with a little Parmesan.

  4. Pour 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce around the sole.

  5. Cover the fish with buttered paper.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) for about 10 minutes.

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash, dry, remove the skin, and trim the head, tail, and fins.

  2. Make an incision down the center, raising the top fillets without removing them.

  3. Cut the bone down the sides, top, and bottom, being careful not to cut the fillet underneath.

  4. Dry the fish thoroughly. Season the fish.

Crumb and finish

  1. Carefully egg and crumb it, pressing the crumbs on well.

  2. Roll back the loosened fillets.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parmesan cheese + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,490 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the crumbs to the fish and set into a coating as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating around the fish.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the crumb coating brown.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps keep the fish moist.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and bright tomato flavor around the fish as it bakes.
Flour
Gives the egg a dry surface to cling to before the crumbs.

The step that matters

Dry the fish thoroughly before egging and crumbing. Surface moisture stops the egg from sticking and makes the crumbs slide off or steam unevenly. A dry surface, with the crumbs pressed on firmly, gives an even coating that browns properly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parmesan cheese, tomato, sauce, flour, pepper, egg, bread):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Basilfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against parmesan cheese, tomato, sauce, flour, pepper, egg, bread. 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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