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Delicate Whitings

A lightly seasoned stew of whitings simmered in butter, onions, herbs, peppercorns, cloves, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,901 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Delicate Whitings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cleaned whitings into pieces.

Cook

  1. In a stewpan, combine the fish pieces with butter, onions, sweet herbs, peppercorns, cloves, and salt.

  2. Add enough water to cover the fish.

  3. Boil over medium heat for 30 minutes.

  4. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Serve

  1. Arrange the fish on a plate and pour the sauce over them.

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. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Whiting + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + clovetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Whiting + oniontop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together155 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Whitings
Provide the delicate white fish that is the main component of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the cooking liquid.
Onions
Contribute aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Boil over medium heat for 30 minutes. Fish is delicate and its proteins toughen and dry out when cooked too hard. Keeping the liquid at a gentle, controlled simmer rather than a vigorous boil helps the flesh stay tender and flake cleanly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whiting, butter, onion):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, butter, onion. 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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