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Baked Fish

A fish stuffed with bread crumbs and pork, baked with bacon and served with Hollandaise sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean the fish by removing the intestines at the gills without splitting it.

  2. Make stuffing by mixing bread crumbs, onion juice, salt, melted butter, and pepper.

  3. Fill the fish with the stuffing and stitch it closed, securing the jaws.

  4. Cut gashes one inch apart on one side of the fish and insert strips of fat salt pork.

  5. Place bacon in the bottom of a baking pan and add water.

  6. Dust the fish with salt, pepper, and flour, then place it in the pan on top of the bacon.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the tail with oiled paper and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes per pound.

  2. Baste the fish every 10 minutes.

  3. Once done, carefully lift the fish and serve on a platter, garnished with potato balls and parsley.

  4. Top the fish with thin slices of lemon and chopped parsley, and serve with Hollandaise 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole so its flesh stays moist inside.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter and onion juice to form a moist, seasoned stuffing.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the stuffing and the fish.
Fat salt pork strips
Melt slowly during baking, adding moisture and fat to the fish.
Bacon
Renders fat into the pan, flavoring the fish and browning its underside.
Flour
Dusted on the fish to help the surface brown during baking.

The step that matters

Baste the fish every 10 minutes. Spooning the pan liquid over the fish keeps its surface from drying out while it cooks, and the fat and juices add flavor and help browning.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, pepper, pork, flour, potato, parsley):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, pepper, pork, flour, potato, parsley. 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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