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Mullet, Red, with Tomato Sauce

A baked red mullet topped with tomato sauce, parsley, and seasoned with pepper and coarse sea salt.

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 34,122 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mullet, Red, with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter a fire‑proof dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Lay the red mullets in the dish.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

  4. Add the tomato sauce.

  5. Cover with oiled paper.

  6. Bake for 30 minutes.

  7. Serve in the baking dish.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,398 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 15,338 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Red mullets
The fish is the main ingredient and becomes flaky and tender as it bakes.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and acidity, keeping the fish from drying out while it bakes.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Tarragonabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Capersabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, sauce, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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