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Lenten Fish-Soup

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and saffron work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 781 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Lenten Fish-Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the blood of pikes or conger eel.

  2. Chop the pieces of pikes, conger eel, and large cod into small bits.

  3. Mix the chopped fish with the boiled blood.

  4. Soak white bread in water and strain it through a cloth.

  5. Boil and mince the onions.

  6. Combine the fish mixture with the soaked bread, minced onions, pepper, saffron, vinegar, and ale.

  7. Simmer until well combined and heated through.

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. Pepper + saffrontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Onion + saffrontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,042 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

Swap the saffron

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, bread, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Saffronthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, bread, pepper, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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