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Breaded Fish

Breaded fish pieces seasoned with salt and pepper, coated in egg and crumbs, then fried until light brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Breaded Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the fish pieces with salt and pepper.

  2. Dip each piece in the beaten egg.

  3. Roll the fish in cracker crumbs, bread crumbs, or corn meal.

Fry

  1. Fry the fish on both sides until light brown, being careful not to break them while turning.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,782 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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, cooked through by frying.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the crumb coating sticks to the fish.
Cracker crumbs, bread crumbs, or corn meal
Forms a crisp coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Turning the fish gently. The coating is held to the fish only by the beaten egg, and it can tear off if the pieces are flipped roughly. Turning gently when the first side is set keeps the crust intact and the browning even.

“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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