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Baked Stuffed Halibut

A halibut steak stuffed with bread crumbs, herbs, anchovy essence, and egg, baked and served with egg sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Baked Stuffed Halibut

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 the fish

  1. Cut the halibut into equal halves.

  2. Place one piece on a greased baking tin.

  3. Make a stuffing with the bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, anchovy essence, salt, pepper, and egg.

  4. Spread the stuffing over the fish.

Bake and serve

  1. Lay the second half of the fish on top, cover with greased paper, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. Serve with egg sauce.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Bulk out the stuffing and soak up moisture so it holds together in the fish.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it stays in place while baking.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the fish brown lightly.
Anchovy essence
Adds a savory, salty depth that seasons the stuffing.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich fish and stuffing.

The step that matters

Covering the fish while it bakes. Halibut is a lean fish that dries out quickly in the oven. Covering it with greased paper traps steam, helping the fish stay moist while the stuffing heats through.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, parsley, pepper, anchovy, egg, butter, lemon):

  1. Thymethe original
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parsley, pepper, anchovy, egg, butter, lemon. 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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