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Fishes in "court Bouillon."

A preserved fish canned in a court bouillon made with water, vinegar, spices, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fishes in "court Bouillon."

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bouillon

  1. Cut the gills and remove the interior of the fish.

  2. Soak the fish in cold salt brine for 25 minutes.

  3. In a pot, combine water, vinegar, cloves, carrots, onions, garlic, pepper, salt, parsley, and thyme.

  4. Boil slowly for 1 hour, replacing lost water with hot water.

Can and process

  1. Boil each fish for 1 minute, then can with the bouillon.

  2. Add a small piece of isinglass to each can, seal tightly, and process.

  3. Process 1 pound for 1 hour at 216°F (102°C) or 2 pounds for 1 hour at 220°F (104°C).

  4. Cool off with cold water.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Adds acidity to the bouillon, which helps preserve the fish and sharpens its flavor.
Garlic
Adds aromatic pungency to the bouillon.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the bouillon.
Isinglass
Gelatin-like fining agent that helps the liquid set and clarify in the can.

The step that matters

Process at the stated temperature and time. Fish is a low-acid food, so it must be held at the full processing temperature for the full time to destroy harmful microorganisms. Shorter or cooler processing can leave it unsafe to store.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, clove, carrot, garlic, pepper, parsley, thyme):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, carrot, garlic, pepper, parsley, thyme. 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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