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To Fry Smelts

Smelts are lightly floured, dipped in egg, coated with breadcrumbs, and fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

To Fry Smelts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Ensure smelts are very fresh and clean them lightly.

  2. Dry the smelts with a cloth.

  3. Lightly flour the smelts.

  4. Dip the floured smelts in egg.

  5. Sprinkle very fine bread crumbs over the smelts.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a pan until boiling.

  2. Fry the smelts until they are a nice pale brown.

  3. Avoid removing the light roughness of the crumbs.

  4. Drain the smelts on a drainer before serving.

  5. Serve with plain 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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Smelt + breadtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Bread + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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, cooked whole in a crisp coating.
Egg
Binds the flour and bread crumbs so the coating adheres to the fish.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that protects the fish while it fries.
Lard
Frying fat that conducts heat evenly and browns the coating.

The step that matters

Fry the smelts until a nice pale brown. Frying in hot fat sets the crumb coating quickly so it stays crisp. Overcooking dries the small fish and darkens the coating, while underheated fat makes it greasy.

“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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