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Fried Red Snapper

Thin slices of red snapper are breaded with cracker crumbs and fried, served with parsley butter gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Fried Red Snapper

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the red snapper into thin slices from the bone.

  2. Brown the crackers and roll them very fine.

  3. Beat the eggs and season with salt and pepper.

Fry

  1. Heat the lard until very hot.

  2. Dip the fish slices in the egg, then coat with the cracker crumbs.

  3. Prepare parsley and butter for the gravy after frying the fish.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + buttertop 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

Eggs
Bind the cracker crumbs to the fish so the coating adheres while frying.
Crackers
Form a crisp, browned coating once toasted and crushed into fine crumbs.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying, browning the coating and crisping the fish surface.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the gravy served with the fish.

The step that matters

Heat the lard until very hot. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping quickly. Hot fat sets the crumb crust fast, keeping the fish moist inside.

“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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