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Smelts or Sparlings Broiled

Broiled smelts or sparlings lightly coated in flour, seasoned with coarse sea salt, served with fried parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,675 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Smelts or Sparlings Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dredge the smelts or sparlings lightly with flour.

  2. Broil them on a gridiron over a slow fire.

  3. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Smelt + parsleytop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together146 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

Smelts or sparlings
The small whole fish are the main dish and cook quickly, becoming firm and flaky under the heat.
Flour
A light dusting helps the fish surface brown slightly and keeps the skin from sticking to the grill.

The step that matters

Broiling over a slow fire. Small fish dry out quickly if the heat is too strong. A slow, steady fire cooks them through while keeping the flesh moist, and the flour dusting helps the surface brown without burning.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against smelt, flour. 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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