Skip to main content
Main

Baked Whitings

Baked Whitings is a fish dish baked with butter, wine, herbs, and a mushroom ketchup gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Whiting and ketchup share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Baked Whitings

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. Clean the whitings and cut off the heads.

  2. Season the fish with salt and pepper.

  3. Butter the bottom of a pudding dish and lay in the fish.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle more butter and the light wine over the fish.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  3. In a saucepan, mix chablis, herbs, mushroom ketchup, gravy, and cayenne; boil for a few minutes.

  4. Pour the mixture over the fish and return to the oven.

  5. Bake slowly for another 30 minutes.

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. Whiting + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Wine + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Whitings
The main fish, which cooks gently in the oven and forms the dish's body.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the fish from drying out while it bakes.
Light wine
Adds moisture and a light acidity that carries flavor into the fish as it bakes.
Chablis
Adds acidity and wine flavor to the sauce, which reduces when boiled.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savory, umami flavor to the sauce.
Gravy
Adds body and savory depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Baking the fish slowly after adding the sauce. Fish proteins set and turn opaque as they heat, and overcooking squeezes out moisture and makes the flesh dry and firm. Returning the fish to a moderate oven with the sauce helps it cook through gently while staying tender.

“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.

You might also like

Mushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes