Name: Baked Gurnet
Ingredients: gurnet fish; ½ cup white wine; 2 tablespoons butter

Why it works: White wine and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Baked Gurnet

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

gurnet fish
½ cup white wine
2 tablespoons butter

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Lay the gurnet fish in a well-buttered, deep fireproof dish.
Pour the white wine over the fish.
Place small pieces of butter on top of the fish.
Cover with a thickly buttered paper.

Bake

Bake until cooked, basting frequently with the wine.

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.

White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Fish + white winetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together370 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Gurnet fish: Is the main protein, cooked gently in the oven until it flakes.
White wine: Adds moisture and acidity, and its basting keeps the fish from drying out.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, helping the fish stay tender as it bakes.

“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.