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Baked King-Fish with Fine Herbs

A baked kingfish seasoned with shallots, parsley, mushrooms, butter, white wine, and lemon, topped with reduced espagnole sauce and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,737 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Baked King-Fish with Fine Herbs

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 the fish

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

  2. Cut off the fins of the king-fish and make a lengthwise incision on each side.

  3. Grease a baking dish with butter and place the fish inside.

  4. Strew the fish with chopped shallots, parsley, and mushrooms.

  5. Season with salt and pepper, and place small bits of butter in the incisions.

  6. Pour the white wine over the fish.

Bake and finish

  1. Cook slowly in the oven, basting occasionally with the liquid.

  2. After cooking, mask the fish with reduced espagnole sauce and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  3. Bake for an additional 15 minutes until nicely colored.

  4. Drizzle lemon juice over the fish and 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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,982 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

King-fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently to stay moist and flaky.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the surface brown in the oven.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet aromatic flavour that infuses the fish as it bakes.
White wine
Creates a flavourful cooking liquid that steams the fish and is basted over it.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping as they bake on the fish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and wine flavours.

The step that matters

Slow cooking and basting. Cooking gently in a moderate oven and basting with the liquid keeps the fish moist and prevents the flesh from drying and toughening. Overcooked fish becomes dry and firm because proteins tighten and squeeze out moisture when heated too hard or too long.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, shallot, mushroom, pepper, white wine, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, shallot, mushroom, pepper, white wine, bread. 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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