Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Dressed Fish
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Break the cold fish into small pieces.
In a saucepan, combine the fish with a little salt, pepper, white sauce, cream, anchovy sauce, and cayenne.
Fill and bake
Butter some scallop shells and sprinkle with brown crumbs.
Fill the shells with the fish mixture and sprinkle more brown crumbs on top.
Place the shells in a 400°F (200°C) oven until heated through.
Serve
Serve on a napkin in the shells.
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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Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together637 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,787 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold fish
- Forms the main body of the filling, providing the flavour and texture of the dish.
- White sauce
- Binds the flaked fish together and keeps the filling moist and creamy.
- Cream
- Adds richness and moisture to the fish mixture.
- Anchovy sauce
- Adds savoury, salty depth to the fish filling.
- Brown bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden topping that browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Heating the filled shells in the oven. The fish is already cooked, so the goal is only to heat it through and brown the crumbs. Overbaking dries the filling and toughens the fish, so watch for heat through and a golden top.
“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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