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Scalloped Fish

A baked fish dish with milk, onion, parsley, butter, and crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Scalloped Fish

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Fish

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

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Debone and cut the fish into fine bits.

  3. Butter the sides and bottom of a baking dish.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milk over boiling water with onion, parsley, butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Stir in corn starch or flour mixed with a little cold milk, and let it boil briefly.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the minced fish, then the cream mixture, and sprinkle with cracker or bread crumbs.

  2. Repeat layers until the dish is full, finishing with a layer of crumbs on top.

  3. Bake until heated through and the top is golden.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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, giving it substance and flavor.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that moistens the layers.
Corn starch or flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that holds the layers together.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the sauce and greases the baking dish.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Boiling the thickened sauce briefly. Starch needs to reach a boil to fully thicken the milk. If it stays underheated, the sauce stays thin and runny and will not hold between the fish layers.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, milk, onion, parsley, butter, corn, bread):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, onion, parsley, butter, corn, bread. 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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