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Baked Whiting

Baked whiting with butter, parsley, mushrooms, sherry, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Baked Whiting

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Grease the bottom of a baking dish with butter.

Assemble

  1. Place the whiting in the dish and season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  2. Sprinkle the minced parsley and chopped mushrooms over the fish.

  3. Pour the sherry or Madeira over the fish.

  4. Top with bread crumbs and dot with additional butter.

Bake

  1. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.

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. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Whiting
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes flaky and opaque as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the bread crumbs brown on top.
Sherry or madeira
Adds acidity and aromatic depth, and moistens the fish as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Form a golden crust on top that adds texture and holds in moisture.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the dish.

The step that matters

Bake until the fish is cooked through. Whiting is lean and dries out quickly once it passes the point of doneness. Pulling it as soon as it turns opaque and flakes easily keeps it moist, while overbaking makes it tough.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whiting, butter, parsley, mushroom, pepper, sherry, bread):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, butter, parsley, mushroom, pepper, sherry, bread. 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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