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Scalloped Fish

A baked fish dish with a creamy milk and butter sauce, seasoned with cayenne, nutmeg, and topped with bread crumbs.

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

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the sauce

  1. Scald 1 pint of milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of flour with a little cold milk until smooth.

  3. Add the flour mixture to the scalded milk and cook until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and quickly beat in 4 egg yolks, ½ pound of butter, cayenne pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

Assemble and bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Break the cold boiled fish into small pieces, about 1 inch thick and 1 finger long.

  3. Butter a baking dish and layer the dressing, then the fish, repeating until the dish is full, finishing with dressing on top.

  4. Cover with bread crumbs and bake for 45 minutes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the creamy dressing that binds the fish.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Egg yolks
Enrich and set the dressing, giving it a custard-like richness.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the dressing a smooth, silky texture.
Cold boiled fish
Forms the main body of the dish, layered through the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they meet very hot liquid, so the sauce should be removed from heat before they are beaten in quickly and smoothly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, milk, flour, egg, butter, pepper, bread):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Cinnamonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, flour, egg, butter, pepper, 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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