Why it works: Whiting and parsley work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 330 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
To Boil Whitings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scrape, cleanse, and wipe the whitings.
Cook
Place the whitings on a fish plate and submerge them in boiling water.
Add ½ cup coarse sea salt, 2 bay leaves, and washed parsley tied together to the water.
Simmer the fish for 5 to 10 minutes, watching closely to avoid overcooking.
Serve
Serve with parsley and butter, using the cooking liquid.
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.
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Whiting + parsleytop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together330 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
- The main protein, which turns flaky and opaque as it gently cooks in the simmering water.
- Bay leaves
- Add a subtle aromatic background flavour to the cooking liquid.
The step that matters
Simmering the fish. Fish proteins tighten and dry out quickly when overcooked, so the whitings should be checked closely and removed as soon as they turn opaque and flake easily.
“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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