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Baked Gurnet

Baked gurnet stuffed with breadcrumbs, suet, herbs, and egg, baked with dripping and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Baked Gurnet

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, suet, parsley, sweet herbs, pepper, salt, and egg yolk to make the stuffing.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the gurnet with the mixture.

  2. Place the stuffed fish in a baking dish with dripping and water.

  3. Bake for about 1 hour, basting constantly.

  4. Serve with shrimp sauce.

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

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  3. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gurnet
The main fish, which the stuffing fills and the oven cooks through.
Bread crumbs
Bulk for the stuffing that soaks up moisture and keeps the filling tender.
Suet
Adds fat to the stuffing, keeping it moist and rich as it cooks.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when the fish is baked.
Dripping
Fat in the baking dish that browns the fish and adds flavor.

The step that matters

Basting constantly during the bake. Regular basting spoons fat and liquid over the fish's surface, keeping it from drying out during the long roast and helping it brown.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits less well
  4. Sagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, egg. 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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