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Red-mullets , Leghorn Fashion

Baked red mullet fish with tomato sauce, breadcrumbs, parsley, and fennel seeds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and fennel match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 625 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Red-mullets , Leghorn Fashion

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. Scale the red mullets.

  2. Arrange them in an oiled baking dish.

  3. Season the fish.

  4. Pour tomato sauce over them.

  5. Sprinkle bread crumbs mixed with parsley and fennel seeds on top.

  6. Baste with oil.

Bake and serve

  1. Place in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  2. Baste with their own juices while cooking until done.

  3. Remove from oven.

  4. Serve in the baking 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. Parsley + fenneltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together625 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Tomato + fenneltop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together551 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Red mullets
The fish is the main component, cooked gently in the sauce and crumb topping.
Tomato sauce
Provides moisture and acidity, keeping the fish moist while adding savoury flavour.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping that helps seal in moisture beneath.
Oil
Adds fat for basting, promoting browning and carrying flavour over the fish.

The step that matters

Baste with their own juices while cooking until done. Fish is lean and dries out quickly in dry oven heat. Basting with the juices keeps the flesh moist, and the fish is done once it turns opaque and flakes easily.

Swap the fennel

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sauce, bread, parsley):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Fennelthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sauce, bread, 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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