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Round the Table

A clear fish consommé made with stock, celery, lemon peel, parsley, onion, cloves, pepper, mace, and filleted soles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chevalley de Rivaz, Victor · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Round the Table

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Use the stock from boiled mutton or neck of mutton to make soup.

  2. Remove all fat from the stock when it is cold.

  3. Add the pulp of dried or fresh peas, or haricot beans, to the stock.

  4. Place a muslin bag containing spices, whole pepper, and sweet herbs into the stock.

  5. Let the mixture boil for a short time.

  6. Add salt if necessary.

  7. Serve with bread sippets.

Flavour and strain

  1. Add root of parsley, celery, pepper, mace, cloves, lemon peel, and salt to the stock.

  2. Let it boil for an hour.

  3. Strain the stock.

Add the soles

  1. Boil the strained stock with filleted soles cut into small pieces.

  2. Serve when the soles are done, with sprigs of parsley or chervil.

  3. Remove fillets from a pair of soles and cut them into pieces the size of a penny.

  4. Place the bones and all trimmings of the soles in a saucepan with one quart of plain white stock, a large handful of parsley, a piece of celery, one onion, two or three cloves, a blade of mace, pepper, and salt to taste.

  5. Let this boil slowly from three to four hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

76Calories
2 gProtein
1 gFat
18 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Liquornot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chevalley de Rivaz, Victor. 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. See the original page.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Plain white stock
Forms the liquid base that carries all the flavour of the soup.
Soles (in the method)
Supply the delicate fish flavour and tender flesh that cooks quickly in the hot broth.
Peas or haricot beans (in the method)
Their pulp thickens the broth slightly and gives it body.
Celery
Adds a savoury, aromatic background flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Boil the strained stock with filleted soles cut into small pieces. Fish flesh is delicate and cooks quickly, so overboiling makes it tough and causes it to break apart. Cutting the pieces small and checking for doneness keeps them tender.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, lemon, parsley, onion, clove, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, lemon, parsley, onion, clove, 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.

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