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Normandy Fish

A baked fish dish with butter, flour, spices, mushrooms, sherry, brandy, and tarragon vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Normandy Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Melt the butter in an earthenware dish over coals.

  2. Stir in the flour, nutmeg, salt, black pepper, red pepper, parsley, and mushroom catsup.

  3. Add the fish cut into pieces as large as two fingers.

  4. Pour the sherry or Madeira and brandy over the fish.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the dish and seal the edges with dough to keep in steam.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  3. Serve in the dish it was cooked in and add tarragon vinegar.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

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

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

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish and cooks through in the sealed dish.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the seasonings through the fish.
Flour
Thickens the buttery juices into a light sauce that coats the fish.
Sherry or madeira
Adds sweetness and depth to the liquid that steams the fish.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warmth to the wine-based cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Sealing the dough cover. The dough seal must be tight so steam stays in the dish. Escaping steam lowers the cooking liquid and can leave the fish dry or unevenly cooked.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, flour, pepper, parsley, mushroom, sherry):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, flour, pepper, parsley, mushroom, sherry. 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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