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Baked Smelts

Baked smelts are fish baked with butter, herbs, breadcrumbs, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Smelts

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Thoroughly clean and wash the smelts.

  2. Lay them in a baking dish with warmed butter, dried sweet herbs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the fish with grated breadcrumbs and moisten with 2 to 3 tablespoons of warmed butter.

  2. Pour over ⅓ cup of white wine.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until the liquid reduces.

  4. Brown the top with a salamander and serve.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + white winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Smelts
The main fish, cooked whole so it stays moist under the crumb topping.
Grated breadcrumbs
Form a crust on top that absorbs butter and browns during baking.
Warmed butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavour through the fish and crumbs.
White wine
Provides acidity and liquid that gently steams the fish as it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake until the liquid reduces. The wine and butter must reduce enough to flavour the fish and crumbs without leaving the dish soupy, while the fish stays moist and tender in the oven.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (smelt, butter, pepper, white wine):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against smelt, butter, pepper, white wine. 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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