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Soup

Fish Broth

A savory broth made with fish scraps, vegetables, and stock, served with a French roll and grated Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fish Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large stewpan, heat butter and olive oil until blended.

  2. Add sliced onion and chopped parsley.

  3. Fry until softened.

  4. Add carrot, celery, mushrooms, and dry fish pieces.

  5. Sprinkle with pepper and salt, and fry until fish is slightly browned.

  6. Stir in sliced tomatoes and boiling water.

  7. Simmer until fish is thoroughly cooked, skimming occasionally.

Strain and finish

  1. Once cooled slightly, strain the soup, removing fish bones, and rub fish and vegetables through a sieve back into the broth.

  2. Simmer for another 10 minutes before serving.

Serve

  1. Slice a small French roll and bake until moderately brown.

  2. Place in a tureen and pour soup over it.

  3. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 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 scraps
Give the broth its main fish flavour and body as they simmer.
Potatoes
Break down slightly during simmering to thicken the broth and add body.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour from the aromatics into the broth.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a fresh, savoury sweetness to the broth.
Onion
Softened in fat to build a sweet, savoury base for the broth.

The step that matters

Fry the fish until slightly browned. Light browning develops savoury, roasted flavours through the Maillard reaction, which adds depth to the broth. Overcooking can make the fish bitter and tough, so watch the colour rather than the clock.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, olive, parsley, carrot, celery, mushroom, tomato):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, olive, parsley, carrot, celery, mushroom, 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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