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Smelts, Baked

Baked smelts seasoned with wine, lemon, anchovy, herbs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Smelts, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Clean the smelts by removing the gills and insides, leaving the roe. Dry them on a soft cloth and trim neatly.

  2. Butter a baking dish and lay the smelts flat in it.

Add the sauce and topping

  1. Mix the wine, lemon juice, and essence of anchovy, then pour it into the dish.

  2. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, salt, and cayenne. Brush the smelts with oiled butter and sprinkle the crumb mixture on top.

  3. Pour a little more butter over the crumbs and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10-12 minutes until browned.

Serve

  1. Serve in the baking dish with the sauce from the 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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Smelts
Form the main body of the dish, cooked whole and flat in the baking dish.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Light wine
Adds moisture and gentle acidity to the sauce that collects in the dish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the fish and sauce.
Essence of anchovy
Adds a savoury, salty depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the crumb topping. The crumbs need enough butter to brown evenly in the oven. Too little fat leaves them pale and dry, while the fish underneath can overcook before the topping colours.

“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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