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Fish Scalloped

A baked fish dish with a creamy sauce, anchovy essence, walnut ketchup, mustard, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 479 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fish Scalloped

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

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.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then add the flour and cook for a few minutes.

  2. Pour in the milk, stir until it boils, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.

Fill and bake

  1. Add the fish flakes to the sauce along with the anchovy essence, walnut ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  2. Stir over the heat until the mixture is thoroughly hot.

  3. Grease scallop shells and fill them with the fish mixture.

  4. Cover lightly with breadcrumbs and dot with small pieces of butter.

  5. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until nicely browned.

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. Anchovy + ketchuptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together479 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Walnut + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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 filling and gives the dish its flavour.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and helps the breadcrumb topping brown richly.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the filling together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which sets as it thickens.
Anchovy essence
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering the white sauce. The flour must cook in the butter and the milk must simmer long enough for the starch to swell and thicken fully. Undercooked flour leaves a raw, pasty taste and a thin sauce that will not hold the fish together.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, flour, milk, anchovy, walnut, ketchup):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, flour, milk, anchovy, walnut, ketchup. 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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