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Red Mullet in Cases

Baked red mullet served in buttered paper with sherry and fine herbs sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,505 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Red Mullet in Cases

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale the red mullet.

  2. Trim the red mullet.

  3. Remove the gills from the red mullet.

  4. Wash the fish.

  5. Dry the fish.

Wrap and bake

  1. Place each fish in a case of buttered paper and secure the case well.

  2. Grease a baking tin.

  3. Place the fish inside the tin.

  4. Add the sherry.

  5. Add ½ cup of Fine Herbs Sauce.

  6. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add another ½ cup of Fine Herbs Sauce.

  2. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon over the fish.

  3. Return to the oven until hot.

  4. Serve in the baking tin with extra sauce on each plate.

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. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Sherry + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Red mullet
Forms the main delicate flesh that is gently steamed inside the buttered paper.
Sherry
Adds aromatic flavour and moisture to the fish as it bakes in the sealed paper.
Fine herbs sauce
Keeps the fish moist and adds herbal, savoury flavour as it cooks and is served.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich flavour of the fish and sauce.

The step that matters

Securing the paper cases. If the paper case is not sealed well, steam escapes and the fish dries out. A tight seal traps moisture so the mullet cooks gently in its own juices and sauce.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sherry, sauce):

  1. Pineapplefits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sherry, sauce. 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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