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Frying Fish

A fish fillet fried in lard, then simmered in a wine, anchovy, and butter sauce with lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Turbot and anchovy match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 110 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Frying Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean and dry the fish with a cloth.

  2. Dust the fish with flour.

Fry and make the sauce

  1. Heat enough hog's lard in a frying pan to cover the fish.

  2. Fry the fish until golden brown, then drain on a cloth.

  3. In the same pan, add claret or white wine, anchovy, salt, nutmeg, and ginger.

  4. Return the fish to the pan and simmer until the liquid reduces by half.

  5. Add butter rolled in flour and minced lemon, and simmer until thickened.

Serve

  1. Rub a hot dish with shallot, place the fish inside, and pour the sauce over it.

  2. Serve with fried bread crusts and garnish with 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. Turbot + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together110 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Coats the fish so it browns in the fat and helps thicken the sauce.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat and, rolled in flour, thickens it as it melts.
Claret or white wine
Provides acidity and liquid that reduces into the sauce's body and flavour.
Anchovy
Adds a deep savoury flavour to the sauce as it melts into the liquid.
Lemon
Adds bright acidity that balances the rich butter and wine sauce.
Hog's lard or dripping
Conducts heat for frying, giving the fish a golden, crisp browned surface.

The step that matters

Simmering the sauce until thickened. Simmering reduces the wine and thickens the butter-flour mixture; too little heat leaves the sauce thin, while overheating can split the butter and make it greasy.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, turbot, flour, white wine, anchovy, nutmeg, butter):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, turbot, flour, white wine, anchovy, nutmeg, butter. 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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