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Red Mullet, Baked

Baked red mullet with lemon, mushrooms, shallots, carrot, parsley, white wine, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Red Mullet, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash the mullet and rub it with lemon juice.

  2. Place it in a tin dish with mushroom, shallots, carrot, parsley, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add white wine.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

  2. Baste constantly with melted butter.

  3. Serve with sauce poured over the mullet.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  4. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Red mullet
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through gently in the oven.
Butter
Melted for basting, adding fat that promotes browning and a rich mouthfeel on the surface.
White wine
Adds liquid to the dish, creating steam and a flavourful base for the sauce.
Shallots
Contribute a mild, savoury sweetness that flavours the cooking liquid.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish.

The step that matters

Baste constantly with melted butter. Fish is lean and dries out quickly in dry heat. Regular basting coats the surface with fat, helping keep the flesh moist and promoting a golden finish.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, mushroom, shallot, carrot, parsley, white wine, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, mushroom, shallot, carrot, parsley, white wine, butter. 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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