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Kippers and Bloaters Aux Fines Herbes

Bloaters stuffed with shallot or chives, parsley, breadcrumbs, butter, nutmeg, and pepper, baked until hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Kippers and Bloaters Aux Fines Herbes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone the bloaters and fill the cavities with shallot or chives, parsley, breadcrumbs, and butter.

  2. Add a tiny grate of nutmeg and a dust of pepper if desired.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the bloaters in a well-greased bag and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10 minutes.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bloaters
Provide the main fish flesh that is cooked and eaten, with their soft roe adding richness.
Fresh breadcrumbs
Absorb the butter and juices in the cavity, keeping the filling moist and lightly textured.
Butter
Adds fat that melts during baking, moistening the fish and carrying flavour.
Shallot or chives
Add a mild onion-like aroma that perfumes the fish as it heats.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, parsley, butter, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, parsley, butter, pepper. 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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