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Bouillabaisse

A fish stew made with onions, butter, olive oil, garlic, bay leaf, lemon, tomatoes, saffron, stock, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Bouillabaisse

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Chop the onions and brown them in butter in a stew-pan.

  2. Add the fish pieces to the pan.

  3. Pour in the olive oil, garlic, bay leaf, lemon slices, tomatoes, saffron, and lemon juice.

  4. Add enough stock to cover the ingredients and bring to a boil.

  5. Boil for 10 to 20 minutes, skimming carefully.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, stir in the chopped parsley.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main protein and flavour, releasing savour into the broth as it cooks.
Olive oil
Carries fat-soluble aroma compounds from the garlic, bay and saffron into the broth.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body, helping build a fuller-flavoured broth.
Onions
Browning in butter builds sweetness and a deeper savoury base.
Saffron
Adds distinctive aroma and a golden colour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming during the boil. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that rise to the surface, keeping the broth clear and free of scum. Boiling hard too long can break up the delicate fish, so the timing matters.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, fish, olive, garlic, lemon, tomato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, fish, olive, garlic, lemon, tomato. 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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