Name: Escalloped Fish
Ingredients: 2 pounds fish; ½ cup cream; ½ cup milk; 2 tablespoons flour; Salt and pepper to taste; Cracker crumbs; 2 tablespoons melted butter

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Escalloped Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

Boil the fish in a separate dish for about 20 minutes.

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, boil the cream and milk together.
Stir in the flour and season with salt and pepper.

Assemble and bake

In a baking dish, layer the fish and cream mixture alternately until filled.
Top with cracker crumbs mixed with melted butter.
Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until heated through.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

Flour and butter 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

Fish: Forms the main body of the dish and provides its protein and flaky texture.
Cream: Adds richness and moisture, giving the layers a smooth, soft texture.
Milk: Thins the cream mixture and adds moisture and mild sweetness to the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the cream and milk mixture so it coats the fish rather than running off.
Cracker crumbs: Form a crisp topping that contrasts with the soft layers beneath.
Melted butter: Adds fat that helps the cracker crumbs brown and taste rich.

“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.