Name: An Economical Fish Stew
Ingredients: 3 to 4 pounds of hake, ling, skate, or haddock; 1 pound of fish cuttings or trimmings; 2 ounces of lard; 2 to 3 onions, sliced; 2 quarts of water; parsley or other green herbs; salt; pepper

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

An Economical Fish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

Remove the fish from the bones and pound the bones.
Set aside the bones and any head portions with the cuttings.

Make the stew

In a saucepan, heat the lard and fry the sliced onions until brown.
Add the water, pounded bones, trimmings, parsley, salt, and pepper to the saucepan.
Let the mixture simmer for three hours.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Haddock + fishtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together257 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,341 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 bones and trimmings: Release flavour and body into the broth during the long simmer.
Onions: Brown in the lard to add sweetness and depth to the stew base.
Lard: Carries the onion flavour and adds richness to the stew.

The step that matters

Frying the onions until brown. Browning the onions in lard develops sweet, savoury flavours through the Maillard reaction and caramelisation. Pale onions give a flatter, less rich stew base.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, fish, parsley, pepper):

Potatofits better
Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, fish, parsley, pepper. 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.

More fish stew recipes

Water Soucy 6 White 5 with Eggs 4 with Fish Balls 4 Brown 3 Cod 3 See all 52 →

Fried Fish120 recipes

Fish Croquettes81 recipes

Scalloped Cod69 recipes

Broiled Fish68 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The 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.

An Economical Fish Stew