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Red Mullet, Baked

Baked red mullet with lemon, mushroom, shallot, parsley, carrot, wine, and butter or oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Red Mullet, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Scrape the mullet lightly and remove the gills and gut without damaging the liver.

  2. Rub the mullet with lemon juice and place it in a shallow dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Add the chopped mushroom, shallot, parsley, carrot slices, pepper, salt, and light wine.

  2. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven, basting with butter or salad oil until done, about 30 to 45 minutes.

  3. Serve on a hot dish with the pan sauce poured over 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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 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

Red mullet
The fish is the main protein, cooking through gently to stay moist and flaky.
Lemon juice
Its acidity brightens the flavour of the fish and helps balance the rich pan sauce.
Mushroom
Releases moisture and savoury flavour into the pan, adding body to the sauce.
Shallot
Adds a mild, sweet onion-like aroma that softens and flavours the sauce as it bakes.
Light wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the pan liquid and helps build the sauce.
Butter or salad oil
Fat for basting that carries heat over the surface and keeps the fish from drying out.

The step that matters

Bake until done, basting regularly. At 300°F the fish cooks slowly, and it can dry out before it is cooked through. Regular basting with fat keeps the surface moist, and the flesh should turn opaque and flake easily when done.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, mushroom, shallot, parsley, pepper, wine, butter. 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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