Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Baked Figkebel
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fish
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Place the fish in a dripping pan with enough hot water to prevent scorching.
Use a perforated sheet of tin or muffin rings to keep the fish off the bottom.
Arrange the fish in a circle on its belly, with the head and tail touching, and tie it if needed.
Bake and baste
Bake slowly, basting often with butter and water.
Make the sauce and serve
In a cup, combine sweet cream or rich milk with hot water and stir in melted butter and chopped parsley.
Heat the mixture by placing the cup in boiling water, then add the gravy from the dripping pan and let it boil once.
Transfer the fish to a hot dish and pour the sauce over it.
For an egg sauce, stir in the yolk of an egg quickly and add a teaspoon of chopped parsley.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Fish
- Is the main protein that cooks slowly in the oven until tender.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture while basting and enriches the sauce.
- Sweet cream or rich milk
- Forms the body of the sauce, giving it a smooth, rich texture.
- Egg
- Optional yolk that thickens the sauce when stirred in quickly.
The step that matters
Stirring in the egg yolk. Adding the yolk quickly and stirring keeps it from clumping or scrambling in the hot sauce, since egg proteins set with heat and can curdle if left still.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, cream, egg):
- Nutmegfits better
- Capersfits about as well
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, cream, egg. 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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