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 ↓
Modern Cookery
Ingredients
Directions
Remove the flesh from the fish bones in handsome fillets.
Dip the fillets in beaten egg, then coat them with fine bread crumbs.
Fry the coated fillets in plenty of lard until golden brown.
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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Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,782 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish fillets
- The main ingredient, which cooks through quickly and turns flaky when fried.
- Egg
- Acts as a sticky binder that holds the bread crumbs to the fish.
- Fine bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating when fried.
- Lard
- Frying fat that conducts heat evenly and browns the coating.
The step that matters
Frying the coated fillets. The lard must be hot enough when the fillets go in. A hot fat seals and crisps the crumb coating quickly, so it absorbs less grease and the fish cooks through gently inside.
“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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