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Little Fried Smelts Garnished with Shrimps and Olives

A dish of fried smelts served with shrimp and olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,263 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Little Fried Smelts Garnished with Shrimps and Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and prepare the smelts.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Dredge in flour.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a pan and fry the smelts until golden brown.

  2. Garnish with cooked shrimp and olives before serving.

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. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  2. Shrimp + olivetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,966 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  3. Smelt + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Olive + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,871 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Smelts
Small whole fish that become crisp and tender when fried, forming the main dish.
Flour
Dry coating that browns in hot oil and helps form a crisp outer crust.
Shrimp
Cooked shellfish added as a garnish, contributing sweet, briny flavor.
Olives
Add briny, salty acidity that contrasts with the rich, fried fish.

The step that matters

Fry the smelts until golden brown. Oil must be hot enough before the floured fish goes in. Cold oil lets the coating absorb grease and turn soggy, while overcrowding drops the oil temperature. Frying in batches at a steady heat gives a crisp, evenly browned crust.

“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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