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Whiting, with Shrimps

Baked whiting fillets rolled with butter, served with shrimp in a wine, vinegar, and roux sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Whiting, with Shrimps

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut each whiting into fillets by slicing down each side from head to tail, removing the flesh close to the bones, yielding 12 pieces.

  2. Season the fillets with salt and cayenne.

  3. Brush the fillets with warm butter.

  4. Roll the fillets up.

  5. Place the rolled fillets close together on a baking tray.

  6. Add white wine and French vinegar to the tray.

Make the stock and sauce

  1. Boil the fish bones in water to make stock.

  2. Strain the stock.

  3. Add a little stock to the fish.

  4. Cover the fish with buttered paper.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 to 12 minutes.

  2. Remove the fish from the oven.

  3. Add the remaining stock to the gravy in the tray.

  4. Stir in the brown roux.

  5. Bring the sauce to a boil.

  6. Season to taste.

  7. Add the freshly-shelled shrimps.

  8. Heat through.

  9. Pour the sauce into the center of a serving dish.

  10. Arrange the whiting in an outer circle.

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. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Fish + shrimptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Whiting
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in the tray to stay moist.
Butter
Enriches the fish with fat, adding richness and helping it brown lightly.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid that flavours the sauce.
French vinegar
Contributes sharp acidity that balances the richness of the sauce.
Brown roux
Thickens the sauce and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Shrimps
Add sweetness and seafood flavour to the sauce when heated through at the end.

The step that matters

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Fish cooks quickly and becomes dry and tough if overbaked. Removing it as soon as it turns opaque keeps the fillets moist and tender.

“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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