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An Excellent Way to Dress Fish

Floured fish is fried, then served in a tomato, parsley and wine sauce seasoned with pepper, salt and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph (1762–1828) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

An Excellent Way to Dress Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Dredge the fish well with flour.

  2. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the fish.

  3. Fry the fish a nice brown.

  4. Set the fish aside to get cold.

Make the sauce

  1. Put a quarter of a pound of butter in a frying pan.

  2. When the butter boils, fry tomatoes with the skins taken off, nicely picked parsley, and a very little chopped onion.

  3. When done, add as much water as will make sauce for the fish.

  4. Season the sauce with pepper, salt, and pounded cloves.

  5. Add some wine and mushroom catsup.

Serve

  1. Put the fish in.

  2. When thoroughly heated, serve it up.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

116Calories
0 gProtein
12 gFat
3 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Mary Randolph (1762–1828). 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish (in the method)
Flour coating and frying give the fish a browned, crisp exterior while it stays moist inside.
Butter
Fat for frying the fish and cooking the sauce, adding richness and browning.
Tomatoes (in the method)
Provide acidity and body to the sauce, balancing the richness of the butter.
Wine (in the method)
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the fish a nice brown. Frying until deeply browned develops flavour through the Maillard reaction and gives a crisp coating. Underdone flour stays pasty, while overcooking dries the fish out.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, parsley. 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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