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Baked Whitings a LA Francaise

A baked whole whiting seasoned with herbs, mushrooms, and wine, topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Baked Whitings a LA Francaise

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Assemble

  1. Pour clarified butter into a deep dish and cover the bottom with minced mushrooms, parsley, and shallots or green onions.

  2. Place the cleaned whitings in the dish and season with salt and white pepper or cayenne.

  3. Sprinkle more herbs on top and pour in the white wine.

  4. Cover the fish with a thick layer of bread crumbs and drizzle with more clarified butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 15-20 minutes until cooked through.

  2. Serve with a cut lemon.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

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

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Whitings
The fish is the main component, cooked gently in the buttery, wine-based sauce.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and carries flavour, and its lack of milk solids helps it brown without burning.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden crust over the fish during baking.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that flavour the fish and the juices in the dish.
Mushrooms
Contribute savoury, earthy flavour and moisture to the base of the dish.

The step that matters

Covering the fish with bread crumbs and butter. A thick, evenly drizzled layer of crumbs and butter protects the fish from drying out and lets the topping brown and crisp in the oven.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whiting, butter, mushroom, parsley, shallot, white wine, bread):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, butter, mushroom, parsley, shallot, white wine, bread. 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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