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Smelts to Fry

Fried smelt fish coated in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs, served with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Smelts to Fry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Ensure the smelts are very fresh and clean them as necessary without excessive washing.

  2. Dry the smelts with a cloth and lightly flour them.

  3. Dip the floured smelts in the egg, then cover them with breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat the fat or oil until boiling and carefully add the smelts.

  2. Fry until they are a nice pale brown, about 5 minutes.

  3. Drain the smelts on a piece of paper before serving with melted butter.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Smelt + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Smelt + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together198 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Smelts
The main fish, whose delicate flesh cooks quickly inside a crisp coating.
Egg
Binds the flour and breadcrumbs so the coating adheres to the fish.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer layer when fried.
Flour
Dries the fish surface so the egg and crumbs stick evenly.

The step that matters

Fry until pale brown. Frying in fat that is hot enough sets the coating quickly, so the fish stays moist inside and the crumbs stay crisp. Overcooking dries the small fish and darkens the coating too far.

“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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