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To Dress the Sea Bream

A whole sea bream is cleaned, seasoned, and baked or broiled with butter and optional flour or veal stuffing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Dress the Sea Bream

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Open and clean the sea bream, leaving the scales on.

  2. Pat it dry with a cloth to absorb moisture.

Cook

  1. Broil the fish slowly over gentle heat for about 30 minutes, turning it halfway through.

  2. If cracks appear, dust them with a little flour.

  3. Season the inside with salt and pepper, and sprinkle more salt on the outside.

  4. Spread bits of butter on top and place in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 25-30 minutes if baking.

Serve

  1. Serve with melted butter and anchovy 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + vealtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Butter + vealtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sea bream
Firm white flesh that holds together under slow, gentle heat.
Butter
Adds moisture and richness, and helps the surface brown in the oven.
Flour
Dusted over cracks, it helps seal the surface and promote light browning.

The step that matters

Broil slowly over gentle heat. Gentle heat lets the thick fish cook through evenly before the outside dries out or the skin splits. Turning it halfway helps both sides cook at the same rate.

“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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