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Stewed Muscles, or Mussels

A stew of mussels cooked with flour, pepper, parsley, vinegar, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Charles Elme Francatelli · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Stewed Muscles, or Mussels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mussels

  1. Thoroughly wash the mussels and remove any weeds hanging on them.

  2. Put the mussels in a clean saucepan with a little water and enough salt to season, and set them on the fire to boil, tossing them occasionally, until their shells begin to open.

  3. Remove the mussels from the fire and pour their liquor into a basin.

  4. After removing one of the shells from each mussel, put the mussels back into the saucepan.

Stew and serve

  1. Add the liquor, a bit of butter, a spoonful of flour, some pepper, chopped parsley, and a little drop of vinegar.

  2. Toss the mixture over the fire until the mussels have boiled for five minutes.

  3. Serve the mussels as a treat for supper.

  4. Cockles and whelks are cooked in the same way.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

465Calories
13 gProtein
1 gFat
97 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1

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

By Charles Elme Francatelli. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

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

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Parsley + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mussels (in the method)
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flavorful as they are cooked in their own liquor.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquor into a light sauce that coats the mussels.
Butter (in the method)
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds a small amount of acidity that brightens the flavour of the stew.

The step that matters

Toss the mixture over the fire until the mussels have boiled for five minutes.. Boiling the mixture after the flour is added thickens the liquor, but overcooking makes mussels rubbery and tough, so timing matters.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper, vinegar. 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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