Why it works: Turbot and anchovy match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 110 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
How to Stew Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Skin and prepare the soles or flat fish.
Cut larger fish into two or three pieces before cooking.
Cook
Fry the fish until half cooked.
Stew the fish with the anchovies or anchovy sauce.
Serve
Serve with gravy poured over the fish and garnish with sliced lemon.
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.
-
Turbot + anchovytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together110 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Anchovy + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,080 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Turbot + lemontop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together273 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Soles or small turbots
- Provide the flaky white flesh that forms the body of the stew.
- Anchovies
- Add a salty, savoury depth to the stewing liquid.
The step that matters
Frying the fish until half cooked. Frying only part of the way sets and lightly browns the surface so the fish holds its shape during stewing. Frying it fully would leave it dry and overcooked once it simmers further.
“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.
More fish stew recipes
You might also like
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.