Why it works: Fish and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,532 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓
Fried Fish in Batter
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine water and flour all at once; add salt and mix thoroughly to avoid lumps.
Fry the fish
Heat enough fat in a pan to completely cover the fish until it has a faint blue vapor.
Dip the cleaned fish into the batter until fully coated.
Plunge the battered fish into the hot fat and fry for 1 to 2 minutes until cooked.
Remove the fish with a fish slice and place on kitchen paper to drain excess fat.
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 + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,532 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the batter that coats the fish and crisps when fried.
- Water
- Mixes with the flour to form a thin batter that cooks into a light coating.
- Fat
- Conducts heat to cook the batter and fish quickly, creating a crisp outer layer.
The step that matters
Heating the fat until it shows a faint blue vapor. The fat must be hot enough to set the batter immediately on contact. If it is too cool, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisp.
“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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