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Red Mullets

Red mullets are baked with onions, parsley, pepper, sea salt, and salad oil, then topped with a mushroom and sherry butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Red Mullets

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm 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. Place the red mullets in a sturdy dish and sprinkle with chopped onions, parsley, pepper, coarse sea salt, and salad oil.

  3. Bake in the warm oven for 30 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stew pan, heat 1 tablespoon of chopped onions and 1 teaspoon of salad oil over moderate heat until yellowish.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of sherry, ½ pint of melted butter, and chopped mushrooms.

  3. Reduce the sauce over high heat, stirring until it thickens.

Serve

  1. Once the mullets are done, pour the sauce over them and serve.

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. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 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

Red mullets
The main fish, which is cooked whole in the oven until flaky.
Melted butter
Adds richness and a smooth body to the sauce as it reduces.
Chopped mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and bulk to the sauce as it reduces and thickens.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Reduce the sauce over high heat. Stirring constantly while the sauce reduces keeps the butter from separating and the sauce from scorching on the bottom of the pan, so it thickens smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

More red mullet recipes

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