Skip to main content
Main

Bouillabaisse

Bouillabaisse is a French fish stew made with mixed fresh fish, lobster, mussels, vegetables, saffron, stock, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and parsley 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 ↓

Bouillabaisse

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, lightly fry the fish, lobster, and mussels in olive oil.

  2. Add the sliced tomatoes, onion, carrot, lemon, bay leaf, parsley, and saffron.

  3. Stir carefully for 10 minutes, then add the stock and white wine.

  4. Simmer for 15 minutes and serve with small triangles of toast.

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

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

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  4. Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

  5. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main body of the stew and flavour as it breaks down into the broth.
Olive oil
Carries heat and flavour, lightly frying the seafood before the liquids go in.
Saffron
Adds a distinctive golden colour and floral aroma to the broth.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body, helping to build the broth's savoury base.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the broth as it simmers.
Stock
Provides the liquid base and savoury depth of the broth.

The step that matters

Stir carefully for 10 minutes. Gentle stirring keeps the fish in large pieces so they hold their shape, while the seafood and vegetables release flavour into the oil before liquid is added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, lobster, olive, tomato, carrot, lemon, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, lobster, olive, tomato, carrot, lemon, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesLobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipes