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 says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare and bake
Prepare the fish as you would for boiling and place it on a wire rack.
Set the rack on a dripping pan with a little hot water and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.
Bake a small fish for about 30 minutes and a large one for about 1 hour.
When nearly done, butter the top of the fish and brown it nicely.
Make the sauce and serve
For the sauce, use the gravy from the dripping pan, adding catsup, pungent sauce, and lemon juice.
Thicken the sauce with browned flour mixed with a little cold water.
Garnish with parsley sprigs and currant jelly.
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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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and flour 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
- Whole fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently on a rack so it bakes evenly.
- Butter
- Enriches the top of the fish and helps it brown nicely near the end of baking.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the pan gravy into a sauce, giving it body and a toasted flavour.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances its richness.
- Catsup
- Adds sweetness and tang to the sauce made from the pan gravy.
The step that matters
Timing the bake by fish size. Fish cooks through as heat penetrates its thickness, so a small fish and a large one need very different times. Checking doneness prevents a dry outside with an undercooked centre.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, sauce, lemon, flour, parsley):
- Limefits better
- Coconutfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, sauce, lemon, flour, parsley. 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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