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Red Snapper a LA Bearnaise

A whole red snapper seasoned, cooked with onions, herbs, larding pork, butter, and lard, served with Bearnaise sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Red Snapper a LA Bearnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean, wash and dry the fish.

  2. Season the fish with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

  3. Slice the onions.

  4. Lay half of the sliced onions in a fish kettle.

  5. Place the fish on top of the onions.

  6. Add the remaining onions inside and on top of the fish.

  7. Add parsley and thyme to the fish.

  8. Cover the fish.

  9. Let the fish stand for 1 hour.

  10. Remove the fish from the kettle.

  11. Discard the onions, parsley, and thyme.

Cook

  1. Lay larding pork in the bottom of the kettle.

  2. Lay larding pork on top of the drainer.

  3. Place the fish on top of the pork.

  4. Pour 1 ounce of butter over the fish.

  5. Add 1 ounce of butter inside the fish.

  6. Add 2 tablespoons of lard to the bottom of the kettle.

  7. Cover with buttered paper.

  8. Place the lid on the kettle.

  9. Cook over moderate heat for 1 hour until done.

Serve

  1. Transfer the fish to a warm dish.

  2. Garnish with parsley and fried oysters or scallops.

  3. Serve with sauce Bearnaise or egg 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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 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

Red snapper
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently until flaky and moist.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the fish stay tender as it cooks.
Lard
Adds fat for gentle frying and a richer flavor on the bottom of the fish.
Onions
Lie under and around the fish, adding aromatic flavor and moisture during cooking.
Larding pork
Adds fat and savory flavor as it renders during the long, covered cooking.

The step that matters

Cook over moderate heat for 1 hour until done.. Fish is delicate and turns dry and tough if overcooked, while undercooking leaves it unsafe. Moderate heat under a covered lid cooks it gently and evenly, so checking for doneness matters.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (snapper, lemon, onion, parsley, thyme, pork, butter):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Fennelfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against snapper, lemon, onion, parsley, thyme, pork, butter. 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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