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Whiting Aux Fines Herbes

A baked whiting fillet crusted with bread crumbs, herbs, butter, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Whiting Aux Fines Herbes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Scale, empty, and wash the whiting, then wipe them thoroughly dry, preserving the livers.

Make and bake

  1. Lay the whiting in a baking dish and sprinkle with bread crumbs, salt, nutmeg, and the chopped herbs.

  2. Place small pieces of butter over the fish and moisten with white wine.

  3. Bake for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. If there is too much sauce, reduce it by boiling over high heat for a few minutes and pour it under the fish.

  2. Serve with lemon wedges and no other sauce.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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, cooking through in the oven to become flaky and tender.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust over the fish as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the fish and crust brown as it melts.
White wine
Moistens the fish and herbs, creating a light sauce that keeps the fish from drying out.
Sweet herbs
Add fresh, aromatic flavour that perfumes the crust and fish.

The step that matters

Drying the whiting before baking. Thoroughly drying the fish helps the crumb coating stick and crisp rather than turning soggy from surface moisture.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, bread, butter, white wine, parsley, mushroom, lemon. 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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