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John Dory a LA Genoise

A baked John Dory fillet coated in a shrimp and smelt paste, served with genoise sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Shrimp and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 440 recipes. Both carry hexanol, which smells green, fruity. The science ↓

John Dory a LA Genoise

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash and wipe the dory.

  2. Remove the fillets and cut them into oblong pieces.

  3. Remove the bones and heads from the smelts.

  4. Pound the smelts with the shrimps until smooth.

  5. Add the panada and anchovy essence, and moisten with the egg.

  6. Mix thoroughly and strain through a sieve.

Stuff and bake

  1. Spread the mixture on each fillet and fold over the fillet.

  2. Place the fillet in a well-buttered sauté pan.

  3. Season lightly.

  4. Moisten with wine and a few drops of lemon juice.

  5. Cover with buttered paper.

  6. Cook in a 400 °F (200 °C) oven for about 15 minutes or longer, depending on thickness.

  7. Carefully remove the fish and place on a hot dish.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour prepared genoise sauce into the pan.

  2. Boil the sauce.

  3. Strain the sauce over the fillets.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Shrimp + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  2. Smelt + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Dory
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking into tender, flaky fillets.
Smelts
Add concentrated fish flavour to the stuffing mixture.
Shrimps
Contribute sweetness and body to the smooth stuffing.
Panada
Binds the stuffing so it holds together and stays moist.
Egg
Helps bind the stuffing and gives it a set, cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the fish from drying out.

The step that matters

Cooking the stuffed fillets. Fish cooks quickly and dries out if overbaked, so the fillets should be checked early and removed once just opaque. Covering with buttered paper keeps moisture in while the oven heat sets the stuffing.

“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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