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Planked Fish

A whole fish cooked on a heated plank, basted with butter, water, pepper, and salt, served with lemon and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Planked Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash the fish and dry it.

  2. Remove the head.

  3. Split the fish from head to tail to flatten it on the plank.

Prepare the plank

  1. Heat the plank.

  2. Brush the plank with oiled butter.

  3. Place the fish skin side down on the plank.

  4. Secure the fish with tacks.

Bake and serve

  1. Put the plank in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C).

  2. Mix together the butter, boiling water, pepper, and salt.

  3. Baste the fish with the mixture every 10 minutes for about 30 minutes.

  4. Remove from the oven.

  5. Place the plank on a dish.

  6. Garnish with lemon slices and parsley.

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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 and cooks through in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and carries the flavour of the basting mixture.
Boiling water
Dilutes the butter into a basting liquid that keeps the fish moist.
Pepper
Adds a mild, sharp aroma to the basting mixture.
Salt
Seasons the fish and basting mixture throughout.

The step that matters

Basting the fish every 10 minutes. Regular basting spreads the butter mixture over the surface, which keeps the flesh moist as it heats. Skipping it lets the exposed fish dry out during the roughly 30 minutes in the oven.

“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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