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Crisp Sea Bass with Langoustines and Star Anise Jus

Frying is the perfect technique for cooking fish – crisp on the outside and juicy in the centre. Carefully score the fish and make sure it’s absolutely dry for that irresistible crisp skin, fish crackling. Try it served with a warm seaweed salad.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Star anise and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 268 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Star anise + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together268 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together12,516 recipes

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

  3. Garlic + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,512 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Shallot + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,960 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, shallot, mushroom, red wine, star anise, potato, milk):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  3. Rosemarybetter flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shallot, mushroom, red wine, star anise, potato, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).