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Whitings, Fried

Fried whitings coated in beaten eggs and bread crumbs, served with fried parsley and sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Whiting and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Whitings, Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Skin the whitings by holding the head and loosening the skin near the dorsal fin with a knife, then pull the skin off sharply from both sides.

  2. Turn the tail into the mouth and secure with a small peg.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each fish in beaten eggs and coat with bread-crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot fat until golden brown, about 15 minutes before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve on a napkin with fried parsley and your choice of 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. Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Whiting + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 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

Whitings
Mild white fish that becomes flaky and tender when fried, forming the main body of the dish.
Beaten eggs
Bind the bread-crumbs to the fish so the coating adheres during frying.
Fine bread-crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat and protects the fish.
Fat for frying
Conducts heat to brown the coating quickly and gives the crust its rich flavour.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisp and golden. Hot fat sets the crumb quickly, keeping the fish moist inside.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whiting, egg, bread, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, egg, bread, sauce. 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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