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Fresh Mackerel, Bonnefoy-fillets

Fresh mackerel fillets served with a tomato sauce and small potato balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fresh Mackerel, Bonnefoy-fillets

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut off the head and thin tail of the mackerel.

  2. Detach the fillets.

  3. Season the fillets with salt.

  4. Roll the fillets in flour.

Cook and make the sauce

  1. Cook the fillets in clarified butter, turning when done on one side.

  2. In a small saucepan, combine melted glaze, thickened tomato sauce, and chopped shallot cooked in butter.

  3. Let the mixture boil.

  4. Remove the sauce from heat and finish with butter, chopped parsley, and lemon juice.

Serve

  1. Drain the fillets, place them on a dish, and cover with the sauce.

  2. Serve with small potato balls cooked in salted water and steamed for 5-6 minutes.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mackerel
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky, tender texture.
Flour
Coats the fillets so they brown in the butter and hold a light crust.
Clarified butter
Cooks the fillets with rich flavour and browns them without burning.
Thickened tomato sauce
Adds body and tangy flavour to the glaze that coats the fish.
Melted glaze
Provides a glossy, savoury base that thickens and sweetens the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and sauce.

The step that matters

Turning the fillets once. Fillets are thin and delicate, so turning them only once, after the first side is set and golden, keeps them intact and evenly cooked. Turning too early makes them tear and stick to the pan.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sauce, shallot, parsley, lemon, potato):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Kalefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sauce, shallot, parsley, lemon, potato. 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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