Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Baked Fish
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place the fish in a buttered baking dish.
Sprinkle a little lemon juice over the fish.
Cover the dish with buttered parchment paper to retain the fish's flavor.
Bake
Bake until the fish is cooked through and moist.
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,889 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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 and becomes flaky and moist as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps keep the fish from sticking to the dish.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the fish.
The step that matters
Cover the dish with buttered parchment paper. The cover traps steam around the fish so it stays moist while baking. Buttering the paper keeps it from sticking and adds a little richness to the surface.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter):
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
- Applefits less well
- Peachfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, 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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