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To Fey Smelts

Smelts fish are lightly coated in flour and breadcrumbs, then fried and served with fried parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Fey Smelts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the smelts

  1. Wash the smelts, cut off the fins, and dry with a cloth.

  2. Lightly salt and flour the smelts.

Make the coating

  1. Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the beaten eggs.

  2. Dip the smelts into the egg and butter mixture, then roll them in grated bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Plunge the smelts into boiling fat and fry until bright yellow-brown.

  2. Serve on a napkin, garnished with fried parsley.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Smelts
The main fish; its delicate flesh cooks quickly once coated and fried.
Eggs
Bind the coating so the bread crumbs adhere to the fish and form a crust.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the egg mixture that clings to the fish.
Grated bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer layer that browns when fried.
Flour
A thin dry layer that helps the egg mixture stick to the fish.

The step that matters

Frying in boiling fat. The fat must be hot enough to crisp and brown the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy while the fish overcooks.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (smelt, butter, egg, flour, bread):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Cinnamonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against smelt, butter, egg, flour, bread. 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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