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To Roast, Bake, or Broil Red Mullet

A whole red mullet roasted, baked, or broiled with butter, anchovy essence, cayenne, port wine, and lemon, served in paper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Roast, Bake, or Broil Red Mullet

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and dry the red mullet thoroughly without scaling or opening it.

  2. Wrap the fish in a sheet of buttered paper and secure it with pack thread.

Cook and serve

  1. Roast in a Dutch oven, broil over a gentle fire, or bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

  2. For the sauce, combine melted butter, fish juices, essence of anchovies, cayenne, port wine, and lemon juice.

  3. Remove the pack thread and serve the mullet in the paper case or on a plate.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Pepper + port winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,804 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Port wine + lemontop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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; its flesh cooks gently inside the paper wrap.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the sauce and carries flavour through it.
Essence of anchovies
Adds a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the sauce.
Port wine or claret
Adds sweetness and body to the sauce, balancing the acidity of the lemon.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and cuts through the butter.

The step that matters

Wrapping the fish in buttered paper. The paper must be sealed snugly and tied securely so the fish steams in its own juices and stays moist; a loose wrap lets moisture escape and the flesh dries out during roasting.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, port wine):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, port wine. 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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