Should You Slather Your Fish In Sour Cream?

No one loves a battle of opinion more than a gastronome. Lucky for them (alright, fine, us), there's no end to controversial food combinations that elicit passionate responses on both ends of the spectrum. Dairy and seafood have to be listed in the top-five most-debated list, right up there with pineapple on pizza and pickles in peanut butter. 

But who decided cheese, milk, and cream should keep their distance from sea creatures? According to Atlas Obscura, the "prohibition" of seafood and cheese arose in Italy. "Italians are very religious about mixing cheese and fish or seafood, it just isn't done," cookbook author Julia della Croce told the outlet. "[Italians will] just tell you that [cheese] really muddles the flavor of seafood."

New York Times recipe developer Ali Slagle — and droves of other cooks around the world — would disagree. In her debut cookbook "I Dream of Dinner (So You Don't Have To)," Slagle features a recipe that calls for a crispy-crunchy dose of sour cream and breadcrumbs slathered over your fillet of choice.

If you like sour cream and onion dip, Ali Slagle's recipe for "Sour Cream and Onion Fish" might just convert you to a seafood-and-dairy evangelist. Fish fillets (cod, salmon, halibut, or trout are all fair game) get slathered with sour cream and panko, the latter of which turns to a golden crisp in the oven. Before it goes on the fish, the sour cream gets zhuzhed up with onion powder, chives, lemon zest, and salt and pepper for a little extra zing, cutting through the fattiness of the fish in the same way hot sauce balances the richness of scrambled eggs. 

Likewise, in a roundup of common mistakes people make when cooking fish, Roberto Bellitti tells Food & Wine that mild cream sauce on seafood is "just wrong." Instead, he suggests a "slightly sour" sauce that compliments the delicate flavor and texture of fish. We assume sour cream falls into this category.

Not including traditional Italian cooking doctrines (and a contentious ancient Jewish law that prohibits the meeting of seafood and cheese, per The Jerusalem Post), dairy and fish have been vibing for centuries in kitchens around the world. For instance, Crystal King says ancient Romans used to soak sea snails in milk before frying them in oil and serving them in a wine sauce, according to Carol Ashby. Meanwhile, Atlas Obscura mentions garides saganaki, a classic Greek dish made of broiled shrimp, tomatoes, and feta.

More recent examples cited by The Smithsonian Magazine include moules au Roquefort, a popular French recipe in which mussels are simmered in an "earthy blue cheese broth." The magazine also notes Chilean Machas à La Parmesana, composed of clams baked in wine, butter, and a "mild-tasting Chilean version of Parmesan." And, of course, there's the happy marriage of lox and cream cheese on a bagel. Fish slathered in sour cream is just the latest entry in a long roster of recipes that proves bounties of the land and sea can definitely share a plate.