Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Red Mullet
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Clean the red mullet without opening or washing the inside.
Fold the fish in oiled paper.
Bake and make the sauce
Gently bake in a small dish.
Make a sauce with the fish's liquor, butter, flour, anchovy essence, and sherry.
Bring the sauce to a boil and serve it in a boat.
Serve the fish in the paper case it was baked in.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,505 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Flour + anchovytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,753 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sherrytop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,643 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce with fat, adding richness and smooth body.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce so it coats the fish rather than running thin.
- Sherry
- Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the sauce.
- Essence of anchovy
- Adds a savoury, salty depth that complements the fish.
The step that matters
Bring the sauce to a boil. Flour needs to reach a boil to fully cook and thicken the sauce. Boiling too little leaves a raw floury taste and a thin texture, while boiling too hard can break the butter emulsion.
“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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