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Baked Whiting

Baked whiting with butter, parsley, mushrooms, nutmeg, sherry, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Baked Whiting

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Grease the bottom of a baking dish with butter.

  3. Scale, empty, and wash the whiting, then dry them thoroughly, preserving the livers.

Bake

  1. Lay the whiting in the dish and sprinkle with bread crumbs, parsley, mushrooms, and nutmeg.

  2. Place small pieces of butter on top of the fish and moisten with the wine.

  3. Bake for 20 minutes.

  4. If there is too much sauce, reduce it by boiling for a few minutes and pour it under the fish.

Serve

  1. Serve with a cut lemon and no other sauce.

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

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Whiting
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently in its own juices and butter.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the fish stay moist and the crumbs brown.
Bread crumbs
Form a light crust on top that browns in the oven and soaks up some of the juices.
Sherry or madeira
Adds acidity and aroma, moistening the fish and forming the sauce with the butter.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the topping.

The step that matters

Drying the whiting thoroughly. Excess surface water dilutes the butter and wine and turns the crumb topping soggy instead of letting it brown in the hot oven.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whiting, butter, parsley, mushroom, pepper, sherry, bread):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, butter, parsley, mushroom, pepper, sherry, bread. 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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