Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Flounders
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Sprinkle the cleaned flounder with coarse sea salt and dredge well with flour.
Fry and plate
Heat hot fat in a pan and fry the flounder until brown, turning carefully to avoid breaking.
After frying, remove the fish and place on a hot dish. Remove any skewers used to hold the fish together.
Finish and garnish
Pour whipped sauce around the fish and scatter the sieved egg yolks over it.
Garnish with the egg white rings.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Flounder
- Is the main protein, cooked whole so it stays moist inside while the outside browns.
- Flour
- Dredging coat that browns in the hot fat and gives the fish a crisp, golden surface.
- Butter
- Melted fat that conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning flavour.
- Egg yolks
- Sieved yolks add richness and a smooth texture to the finished dish.
The step that matters
Turning the flounder. Flounder is delicate and the flour coating can stick and tear the flesh if it is not released first, so turn it gently with a thin spatula once the underside has set and browned.
“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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