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To I Ky Smelts

Breaded smelt fish fried or baked with butter, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To I Ky Smelts

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Draw the smelts at the gills without opening them.

  2. Wash and dry the smelts thoroughly with a cloth.

Fry

  1. Dip the smelts in melted butter and then in a mixture of fine bread crumbs and a small amount of flour.

  2. Fry the smelts in hot oil until they are golden brown.

  3. Serve with good melted butter in a tureen.

Bake

  1. For baking, arrange the smelts in a dish with tails meeting in the center.

  2. Season with a mixture of salt, mace, and cayenne.

  3. Cover with a thick layer of fine bread crumbs and moisten with clarified butter.

  4. Optionally, add a glass of cherry, a half teaspoon of essence of anchovy, and a dessert spoonful of lemon juice before baking.

  5. Bake in a moderately hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the crumbs are light brown.

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

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

  2. Cherry + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  4. Smelt + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh smelts
The main fish, whose delicate flesh cooks quickly and becomes flaky when fried or baked.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that protects the fish and browns during cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumbs brown while carrying flavour into the fish.
Clarified butter
Moistens the crumb topping and encourages even, light browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil until golden brown. Oil that is too cool lets the crumb coating soak up grease and turn soggy, while oil that is hot enough sets the crumbs quickly so the thin smelts stay moist inside.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (smelt, butter, egg, bread, cherry, anchovy, lemon):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against smelt, butter, egg, bread, cherry, anchovy, lemon. 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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