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To Boil Tench

A boiled tench fish served with sliced lemon and parsley in melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Boil Tench

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the fish

  1. Scale the Tench fish and place it in a pot with cold water.

  2. Add vinegar and scraped horseradish to the water.

  3. Bring the water to a boil gradually.

  4. Once cooked, carefully drain the water without breaking the skin.

Serve

  1. Garnish with sliced lemon.

  2. Serve with chopped parsley mixed in melted butter.

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

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

  2. Horseradish + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together562 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Horseradish + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Vinegar + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Tench fish
Is the main protein, cooked gently in water so the flesh stays moist and tender.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the flavour of the parsley when served.
Scraped horseradish
Contributes a sharp, pungent aroma that flavours the poaching water.

The step that matters

Bring the water to a boil gradually. Heating the water slowly and steadily helps the fish cook evenly and keeps the skin intact. Rapid, violent boiling can break the skin and toughen the flesh.

Swap the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, vinegar, lemon, parsley, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, vinegar, lemon, parsley, butter. 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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