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Bluefish a L’ltalienne

Bluefish à l'italienne is a baked bluefish dish with white wine, mushroom liquor, onions, mushrooms, Espagnole sauce, and croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Bluefish a L’ltalienne

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 the fish

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the bluefish in a buttered pan.

  3. Add white wine, mushroom liquor, onion, and mushrooms.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Bake

  1. Cover the fish with buttered paper and cook for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove the fish and place it on a serving dish.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a stewpan, combine the cooking juice, Espagnole sauce, and white wine.

  2. Reduce for 2 minutes, then pour over the fish.

  3. Garnish with parsley and serve with croutons.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. Bluefish + saucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together19 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 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

Bluefish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently until it flakes.
Espagnole sauce
Gives the sauce body and a rich, savoury depth.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma, and helps flavour the cooking liquid.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the cooking liquid.
Mushroom liquor
Adds concentrated mushroom flavour and moisture to the fish.

The step that matters

Reduce for 2 minutes, then pour over the fish. Reducing concentrates the cooking juices and sauce, so they thicken and taste rich rather than thin. Reducing too long can make the sauce salty and overly thick, so watch it closely.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bluefish, white wine, mushroom, pepper, sauce, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bluefish, white wine, mushroom, pepper, sauce, parsley. 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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