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Fish, with Herb Sauce

Fish fillets baked with thick white sauce, herbs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 774 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fish, with Herb Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

  2. Grease a flat baking tin and lay down two fish fillets.

  3. Spread half of the thick white sauce over the fillets.

  4. Layer the other two fillets on top and cover with greased paper.

Bake and brown

  1. Cook until the fish is almost done, then remove the paper.

  2. Spread the remaining sauce on top, sprinkle with salt, nutmeg, coralline pepper, and breadcrumbs.

  3. Drizzle with oiled butter and brown in the oven.

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. Parsley + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Chervil + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flat fish fillets
Form the main body of the dish, cooking gently to a flaky texture under the sauce.
Thick white sauce
Keeps the fish moist during baking and forms a creamy layer between and over the fillets.
Browned breadcrumbs
Add a crisp, golden crust through browning on the surface.
Oiled butter
Carries fat to the surface, promoting browning and a rich flavour.

The step that matters

Removing the paper before the fish is fully cooked. The paper traps steam so the fish cooks gently and stays moist. Removing it only when the fish is almost done lets the top dry and brown without overcooking the flesh beneath.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, sauce, parsley, chervil, nutmeg, pepper, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, sauce, parsley, chervil, nutmeg, pepper, 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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