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Whiting, Fried

Fried whiting coated in egg and breadcrumbs, served with parsley and optional anchovy or shrimp sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Whiting and anchovy share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 82 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Whiting, Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean, skin, and dry the whiting thoroughly with a soft cloth.

  2. Turn the tail of each fish around and fasten it between the jaws with a small skewer.

Coat and fry

  1. Brush the fish with the beaten egg and cover with bread crumbs mixed with a little flour.

  2. Fry in plenty of hot fat until cooked through and lightly browned, about six minutes.

Serve

  1. Drain and dry the fish well, then serve on a dish covered with a napkin.

  2. Garnish with parsley and serve with anchovy or shrimp sauce in a tureen.

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. Whiting + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together82 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Whiting fish
The main protein, which cooks through in a short time once coated and fried.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb coating to the fish so it adheres during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
Flour
Mixed with the crumbs to help the coating brown and stick evenly.

The step that matters

Drain and dry the fish well after frying. Fried coatings turn soggy when moisture is trapped on the surface. Draining and drying the fish keeps the crumb coating crisp when it is served.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whiting, fish, egg, bread, flour, anchovy):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, fish, egg, bread, flour, anchovy. 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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