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Fish Steaks Fried

Fried fish steaks are slices of fish coated in flour or cornmeal, beaten egg, and bread crumbs, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Fish Steaks Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the fish into slices that are 3/4 inch thick.

  2. Dredge the fish in flour or cornmeal that is slightly salted.

  3. Alternatively, dip the fish in a beaten egg that is slightly salted, then roll in bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the fish in hot oil until golden brown.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,782 recipes

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

  5. Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through in the hot oil while its coating browns.
Flour or cornmeal
Forms a dry first coating that helps the surface brown and crisp when fried.
Egg
Acts as a binder that helps the bread crumbs stick to the fish.
Bread crumbs
Creates a crunchy outer crust that turns golden brown in the frying oil.

The step that matters

Fry in hot oil until golden brown. The oil must be hot enough to brown and crisp the coating quickly. If the oil is too cool, the coating absorbs grease and turns soggy before the fish is cooked through.

“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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