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Fish Stuffed and Baked

A whole fish stuffed with a breadcrumb and onion mixture, baked with butter, wine, and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fish Stuffed and Baked

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Trim the fins of the fish and clean it inside and out.

  2. In a frying pan, melt butter without cooking it.

  3. Add bread crumbs to the melted butter and stir until they absorb the butter.

  4. Add chopped onion to the pan and fry in butter.

  5. Add parsley, lemon juice, cayenne, and salt to the bread crumbs.

  6. Fill the fish with dressing and sew it up with coarse thread.

Bake the fish

  1. Place the stuffed fish in a roasting pan, dot with butter, and add boiling water.

  2. Season the fish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes, basting frequently.

  3. Add wine, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice, then continue baking for about 45 minutes, basting often.

  4. Check if the fish is done when the flesh easily separates from the bone.

  5. Transfer the fish to a hot dish and garnish with parsley and lemon.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. On the stove, add more water if needed and ½ cup claret to the pan drippings.

  2. Bring to a boil, then stir in 1 teaspoon butter and 2 teaspoons flour mixed with some sauce.

  3. Boil for 2 minutes, strain over the fish, and serve.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Whole fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently by baking in its stuffing.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and drippings, giving the stuffing body and moisture.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour, helping the crumbs and fish stay moist while baking.
Claret (red wine)
Adds acidity and flavour to the pan drippings that form the sauce.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savoury depth and tang to the baking liquid and sauce.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the pan sauce so it coats the fish.

The step that matters

Check the fish for doneness. Fish cooks quickly and turns dry past doneness; flesh that separates easily from the bone shows it is cooked through, so checking prevents overbaking.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, red wine, sauce, lemon, pepper, 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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