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Escalloped Fish

Baked fish layered with a thickened milk and butter sauce, topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Escalloped 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 ↓

Escalloped 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 the fish

  1. Boil the fish until tender, then remove the bones.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine milk, salt, pepper, butter, and cornstarch; boil until thick.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a baking dish with a layer of the dressing, then add a layer of fish, repeating the layers, finishing with dressing on top.

  2. Sprinkle bread crumbs or cracker crumbs over the top.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes 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.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main body and flaky texture of the dish.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that moistens the fish.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when boiled.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the sauce, improving flavor and mouthfeel.
Bread crumbs or cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping during baking.

The step that matters

Boil the sauce until thick. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the liquid reaches a boil and is kept there briefly, so the sauce stays lump-free and sets properly. Stopping early leaves it thin, which makes the baked dish watery.

“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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