Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 ↓
Baked 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 fish
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Butter a baking dish and place the filletted plaice inside.
Squeeze the lemon over the fish and season with pepper and salt.
Pour the milk or water over the fish.
Sprinkle brown breadcrumbs and chopped parsley on top.
Bake and make the sauce
Cover with buttered parchment paper and bake for 10 minutes.
For the sauce, use the fish bones to make stock with milk or water.
Thicken the stock with flour and add a little chopped parsley or brown crumbs before pouring over the fish.
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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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Plaice
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently in the baking dish.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps keep the fish and crumbs from drying out.
- Brown breadcrumbs
- Form a crisp, golden topping that browns in the oven.
- Flour
- Thickens the fish stock into a smooth sauce.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that brightens the mild flavour of the fish.
- Milk
- Adds moisture to the fish and forms the base of the sauce.
The step that matters
Thicken the stock with flour. Flour must be cooked into the liquid to avoid lumps and a raw, starchy taste. Whisking it smoothly into the hot stock lets starch granules swell evenly, giving a glossy, thickened sauce.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, milk, pepper, flour, butter):
- Parsleythe original
- Cardamomfits about as well
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Thymefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, milk, pepper, flour, butter. 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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