Why it works: Fish and pork work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 668 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Fried Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean, dry, and season the fish with salt.
Coat the fish with flour or fine bread crumbs.
Dip the fish in the beaten egg, then coat again with crumbs. Alternatively, dip in flour paste before the crumbs.
Fry and serve
Fry in deep, hot fat for 2 to 5 minutes until golden.
Drain on paper and serve with tomato sauce.
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.
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Fish + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together668 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Smelt + flourtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together164 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Smelt + fishtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together71 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,782 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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, with flesh that cooks quickly and flakes when done.
- Flour or fine bread crumbs
- Forms a dry coating that crisps and browns in the hot fat.
- Egg
- Binds the coating to the fish so the crumbs stay in place during frying.
The step that matters
Frying in deep, hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before it browns. Fat that is too cool also lets the fish steam inside its coating. Hot fat sets the crust quickly.
“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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