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Red Mullets

A fish stew of red mullets simmered with herbs, onions, anchovies, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Red Mullets

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the fish

  1. Scald the mullets in salted water for a few minutes, then remove them.

  2. In the same water, boil the sweet herbs, onions, peppercorns, and allspice until reduced to less than 1 pint.

  3. Strain the liquid, then add port wine, lemon juice, chopped anchovies, and nutmeg.

  4. Once the anchovies dissolve, add the mullets, shrimp or oysters, butter, and flour for thickening.

  5. Simmer for a few minutes until the fish is cooked through, then serve.

Bake and sauce

  1. For baking, clean the mullets without removing the entrails, wrap in buttered or oiled paper, and bake gently.

  2. For sauce, use the cooking liquid with chopped anchovy, sherry, and butter rolled in flour, served separately.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  3. Allspice + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Red mullets
The main fish, which firms up and turns opaque as it cooks gently in the liquid.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the poaching liquid and sauce.
Anchovies
Dissolve into the liquid, adding a deep savoury, salty flavour to the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished liquid.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the sauce becomes lightly body-rich rather than watery.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweet port.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the fish is just cooked. Fish proteins toughen and dry out when boiled hard, so a gentle simmer keeps the flesh moist and tender while it cooks through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, port wine, lemon, nutmeg, shrimp, butter, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, port wine, lemon, nutmeg, shrimp, butter, flour. 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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