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Entree of Smelts, &C

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Smelt and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 103 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Entree of Smelts, &C

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Clean and turn the smelts, then fry them until golden brown.

  2. Boil the slice of cod for three parts of the cooking time until cooked through.

  3. Pull the cod into flakes.

  4. Whisk the benshamelle sauce with the egg yolks.

  5. Add the cod flakes, season with salt and lemon juice to taste.

  6. Simmer the mixture over low heat until thickened.

  7. Serve the stew with the fried smelts arranged around the dish.

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. Smelt + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Smelt + lemontop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together156 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sauce + lemontop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Smelt + eggtop 38% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together174 recipes

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

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