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Fish Consomme

A clear fish consommé made from whiting fillets, butter, aromatics, and clarified with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fish Consomme

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter.

  2. Add the fish bones, onion, carrot, bay leaf, thyme, parsley, and peppercorns.

  3. Simmer quietly for 20 minutes.

  4. Strain through muslin into a vessel and allow to cool to separate the butter.

Clarify

  1. To clarify, whisk the egg whites in a basin, gradually adding a glass of water.

  2. Combine the egg mixture with the fumee in a stewpan and stir until boiling.

  3. Simmer for 20 minutes and then pass through muslin.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish bones (in the method)
Release flavour and body into the liquid as they simmer.
Butter
Melted fat carries aroma, and it separates out as the stock cools.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.

The step that matters

Combine the egg mixture with the fumee and stir until boiling. Egg whites form a raft that traps cloudy particles as the liquid heats. Stirring gently, and not letting the raft break up before boiling, keeps the consommé clear.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whiting, butter, carrot, thyme, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, butter, carrot, thyme, parsley. 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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