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Smelts Fried

Fried smelts coated in egg and breadcrumbs, served with shrimp sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Smelts Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and dry the smelts with a cloth.

  2. Toss the smelts in the beaten egg, seasoned with pepper and salt.

  3. Shake the smelts in bread crumbs until coated.

Fry

  1. Heat fresh lard in a pan until very hot.

  2. Fry the smelts quickly until golden brown.

  3. Remove and place on paper to drain.

  4. Sprinkle a little salt over the fried smelts.

Serve

  1. Arrange on a dish and serve with shrimp sauce on the side.

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

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

  2. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Smelt + breadtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Smelt + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Smelts
Form the main body of the dish, cooked whole in a crisp coating.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the fish so the coating adheres during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
Fresh lard
Conducts heat for frying and gives the coating a rich, crisp finish.

The step that matters

Fry the smelts quickly in very hot lard. If the lard is not very hot, the coating absorbs excess fat and turns greasy before it browns. Frying quickly at high heat sets the crust and keeps the small fish moist inside.

“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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