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Stewed Trout

Stewed trout cooked gently in veal stock with mace, cayenne, nutmeg, parsley, bay leaf, lemon peel, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewed Trout

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Melt three ounces of butter in a broad stewpan (or well-tinned iron saucepan).

  2. Stir in a tablespoonful of flour, mace, cayenne, and nutmeg.

  3. Lay in the fish after it has been emptied, washed very clean, and wiped perfectly dry; shake it in the pan so it does not stick.

Stew and serve

  1. When lightly browned on both sides, pour in three quarters of a pint of good veal stock.

  2. Add a small faggot of parsley, one bay leaf, a roll of lemon peel, and a little salt.

  3. Stew the fish very gently from half to three quarters of an hour, or more if unusually fine.

  4. Dish the trout, skim the fat from the gravy, and pass it through a hot strainer over the fish.

  5. Serve immediately. Optional: add a little acid to the sauce at pleasure, and a glass of wine if desired.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

578Calories
13 gProtein
14 gFat
98 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
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Vealnot 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 Eliza Acton. 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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the gravy and helps the fish brown lightly before stewing.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the butter and stock.
Veal stock
Forms the liquid in which the fish stews, giving the sauce body and savoury depth.

The step that matters

Stewing the fish very gently. Gentle heat keeps the delicate flesh moist and tender and prevents it from breaking apart. Vigorous boiling toughens fish protein and can flake the trout.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, veal, nutmeg, parsley):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, veal, nutmeg, parsley. 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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