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Breaded Whitings

Breaded small whitings cooked with butter, herbs, breadcrumbs, white wine, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Breaded Whitings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean, wash, and wipe the small whitings.

Assemble

  1. In a deep plate, combine half the butter, parsley, leeks, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper.

  2. Arrange the fish over the mixture and season with more salt and pepper.

  3. Add the remaining butter, white wine, and gravy or broth.

Cook

  1. Cover the plate and cook over a chafing dish for 30 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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together759 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Small whitings
Provide the main fish, which cooks gently in the covered plate and steams in its juices.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping the breadcrumbs turn golden and tender.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crumb layer that absorbs moisture and gives the dish body and texture.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma, and creates liquid that flavours the fish as it cooks.
Mushrooms
Contribute savoury, earthy flavour and moisture to the base mixture.

The step that matters

Cover the plate and cook over a chafing dish for 30 minutes. Covering traps steam so the fish cooks gently in its own juices and the wine and broth. Too much heat or lifting the cover can dry the fish or leave the crumbs uneven.

Swap the leek

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, butter, parsley, mushroom, pepper, white wine. 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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