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Fish Stock

A stock made from fish bones, water, salt, egg whites, egg shells, seasoning, and vegetables, boiled and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,782 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fish Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jellied stock

  1. Boil fish in just enough water to cover it, adding a little coarse sea salt.

  2. Once cooked, let the broth cool to form a jelly.

Clarify and finish

  1. The next day, add the fish bones and remnants to the jellied stock with additional seasoning and vegetables.

  2. For each quart of jellied stock, heat it until steaming but not boiling.

  3. Stir in the whites of 2 eggs and the crushed egg shells.

  4. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.

  5. Strain through a fine, thin, new flannel bag until clear.

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. Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,782 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping particles so the stock clarifies.
Egg shells
Add calcium and surface area that help bind impurities for clearer stock.
Fish bones and remnants
Release gelatin and savory flavor into the stock as it cooks.

The step that matters

Heating the stock with egg whites. If the stock reaches a rolling boil too soon, the egg whites cook into the liquid instead of rising to trap impurities, leaving it cloudy. Keeping it steaming but not boiling lets the whites coagulate gently and form a clarifying raft.

“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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