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Lamprey, Baked

Baked lamprey stuffed with suet farce, coated in breadcrumbs, and cooked in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,330 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Lamprey, Baked

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the lamprey well with coarse sea salt and wash it in warm water.

  2. Remove the cartilage and strings from the back.

  3. Fill the body with the prepared farce and sew it up securely.

  4. Wrap the fish in 2 or 3 layers of buttered or greased paper.

Poach and bake

  1. Cover the fish with hot water and boil gently for 20 minutes.

  2. Drain and dry the fish well.

  3. Place it in a baking dish with melted butter or fat.

  4. Baste well and bake gently for about 30 minutes, basting frequently.

  5. Remove the skin, brush the fish with beaten egg, and coat lightly with breadcrumbs.

  6. Bake for an additional 20 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.

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. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Anchovy + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Lamprey
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the flesh that is cooked and served.
Suet farce
Fills the body cavity, adding richness and moisture to the fish as it cooks.
Egg
Beaten and brushed on the fish, helping the breadcrumb coating set and brown.
Breadcrumbs
Coat the surface, forming a light crust that browns in the oven.
Fat
Used for basting, keeping the fish moist and helping it brown during baking.

The step that matters

Drain and dry the fish well. Surface water left after boiling would dilute the basting fat and stop the egg and breadcrumb coating from adhering and browning properly in the oven.

“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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