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Stuffed and Baked Fish

A whole fish stuffed with a mixture of fried onions, soaked bread, egg yolk, salt, nutmeg, and parsley, then baked with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed and Baked Fish

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. Fry the chopped onions in butter until soft.

  2. Mix the fried onions with soaked bread, egg yolk, salt, nutmeg, and chopped parsley.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the fish with the mixture.

  2. Pour melted butter over the stuffed fish.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C), covering with greased paper if necessary, until browned.

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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 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
Forms the main body that holds the stuffing and cooks through in the oven.
Onions
Softened in butter, they add sweetness and moisture to the stuffing.
Soaked bread
Absorbs liquid and gives the stuffing a soft, moist body.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the exposed fish brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Baking until browned. Fish is delicate and cooks quickly, so overbaking dries the flesh. Covering with greased paper if the top browns too fast lets the inside finish gently while the surface stays moist.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, bread, egg, nutmeg, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, bread, egg, nutmeg, 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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