Skip to main content
Main

Whitings Fried

Fried whiting fillets coated in egg and breadcrumbs, served with shrimp sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Whiting and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Whitings Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin the whitings and turn the tails into the mouths, securing with a small skewer.

  2. Dip the whitings in beaten egg, then coat with breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the whitings quickly in hot lard until golden brown.

  2. Serve with shrimp sauce in a boat.

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. Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Whiting + shrimptop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Shrimp + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,423 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + shrimptop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

  5. Whiting + eggtop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together340 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Whitings
Provide the delicate white fish that is the main component of the dish.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumbs to the fish so the coating holds during frying.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot lard.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying, producing a crisp, browned exterior.

The step that matters

Fry the whitings quickly in hot lard. Frying in hot fat sets the breadcrumb coating quickly and browns it before the delicate fish overcooks and dries out. Fat that is not hot enough lets the coating absorb grease and fall off.

“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 fried whiting recipes

Fillets 4 See all 45 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes