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Merlans Aux Fines Herbes

Baked merlans seasoned with parsley, spring onions, nutmeg, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Merlans Aux Fines Herbes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Prepare the whitings by keeping the liver inside and sprinkling them lightly with flour.

  2. In a baking dish, combine butter, parsley, spring onions, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

  3. Lay the whitings in the dish with heads next to tails.

  4. Sprinkle the same seasoning over the fish.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the stock and white wine over the fish.

  2. Cover with a buttered sheet of paper and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  3. Once cooked, serve the whitings and pour the gravy over them, adding lemon juice to taste.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Whitings
Provide the delicate white fish that is the main component of the dish.
Very fine flour
Lightly coats the fish so its surface can brown and help thicken the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness that carries the seasoning and moistens the fish as it bakes.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma that brightens the buttery seasoning.
White french wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the stock that forms the gravy.

The step that matters

Covering the fish while it bakes. The buttered paper traps steam so the whitings cook gently and stay moist. Without it, the thin fish can dry out at the surface before the gravy has time to develop.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whiting, fish, flour, butter, parsley, nutmeg, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, fish, flour, butter, parsley, nutmeg, pepper. 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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