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John Dory

A whole fish is simmered in salted water and served with lemon and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 ↓

John Dory

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the John Dory and remove the fins.

  2. Place the fish in a fish kettle and cover it with cold water.

Poach

  1. Add the salt and bring the water gradually to a boil.

  2. Simmer gently for 30 minutes or longer, depending on the size of the fish.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot napkin, garnished with cut lemon and parsley.

  2. Accompany with lobster, anchovy, or shrimp sauce, or plain melted butter.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,341 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

John dory fish
The main protein; its firm, white flesh holds together when gently poached.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the poaching water so the fish is flavoured through, not just on the surface.

The step that matters

Bringing the water to a boil gradually, then simmering gently. Vigorous boiling toughens and breaks up delicate fish flesh. A gentle simmer cooks the fish evenly while keeping it moist and intact.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, lemon):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, 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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