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Restaurant Snapper

A snapper cooked in boiling water, then simmered in a butter‑flour sauce with mace, cayenne, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Restaurant Snapper

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the snapper

  1. Put the snapper in boiling water for about one minute.

  2. Lift it out, remove the skin and shell, and clean it thoroughly.

  3. Place the snapper in a pot with enough water to cover it and boil until tender, seasoning with salt to taste.

  4. Remove the snapper and leave the liquid to boil.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix one tablespoonful of butter and two tablespoons of flour until smooth.

  2. Season the mixture with mace, cayenne pepper, and salt.

  3. Add the mixture to the pot and bring to a boil.

  4. Return the snapper to the pot and simmer for a few minutes.

  5. Adjust thickness by adding more or less flour, as desired.

  6. Some prefer a little wine.

Spice and cure the beef

  1. For ten or twelve pounds of beef, take one tablespoonful of allspice, six cloves, and a piece of mace.

  2. Pound the spices in a mortar.

  3. Add a large spoonful of brown sugar.

  4. Rub the mixture well into the beef.

  5. Rub the beef with saltpetre and salt.

  6. Turn and rub the beef daily for ten days.

  7. Boil the beef for six hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

425Calories
27 gProtein
27 gFat
18 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. See the original page.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and helps form a smooth, rich base with the flour.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the liquid into a sauce as it cooks and heats.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cured beef brown and develop flavour.

The step that matters

Mix the butter and flour until smooth. Lumps form if flour is not fully blended into the butter before liquid is added. Cooking the mixture while stirring lets the starch swell evenly and thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, beef, allspice, sugar, clove, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, allspice, sugar, clove, 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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