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Baked White Fish

A whole white fish stuffed with a crumb and butter dressing, baked and garnished with parsley and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 White Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Open the fish, wash it, and wipe it dry.

  2. Rub the fish with coarse sea salt.

Make and stuff

  1. In a bowl, mix cracker crumbs, melted butter, egg, chili sauce, pepper, and salt to create the dressing.

  2. Fill the fish with the dressing and sew it up.

Bake and serve

  1. Dredge the fish with pepper, salt, bits of butter, and flour.

  2. Place the fish in a baking pan, make 3 or 4 slashes on top, and add bits of tomatoes.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for one hour, basting frequently.

  4. Garnish with parsley and lemon before serving.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the cracker crumb dressing so it holds together inside the fish.
Soda cracker crumbs
Form the bulk of the dressing and soak up the butter and juices.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing and helps the fish brown.
Chili sauce
Adds acidity, sweetness and color to the dressing.
Flour
Dredged on the outside to help the surface brown and thicken the pan juices.

The step that matters

Basting frequently during the bake. Fish is lean and dries out quickly in the oven. Regular basting with the pan juices keeps the surface moist while the dredged coating browns.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, egg, sauce, pepper, flour, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, egg, sauce, pepper, flour, 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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