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Red Mullet

A canned red mullet served with a sauce of sherry, anchovy sauce, butter, salt, cayenne, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Red Mullet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Combine sherry, anchovy sauce, butter, salt, and cayenne in a saucepan.

  2. Thicken with flour and heat until smooth.

  3. Set aside.

Prepare the fish

  1. Drain the red mullet after opening the tin.

  2. Heat the fish in a frying pan until hot.

  3. Prepare parchment papers by oiling them if using fresh fish.

  4. Twist corners to form a box.

  5. Place a hot fish in each paper.

Serve

  1. Pour over the sauce.

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Red mullet
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in its own heat inside the paper.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor, helping the sauce feel smooth and rounded.
Flour
Thickens the sauce so it clings to the fish instead of running off.
Anchovy sauce
Adds salty, savory depth that complements the richness of the fish.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce, balancing the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Thicken with flour and heat until smooth. Flour must be fully incorporated and heated so its starch swells and thickens the sauce evenly; unheated flour leaves a raw taste and lumps.

“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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