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Normandy Fish

A fish dish cooked with butter, flour, nutmeg, parsley, mushroom catsup, brandy, tarragon vinegar, and sherry or Madeira.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Normandy Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Put 5 oz. of butter into an earthenware dish and set on the coals.

  2. When the butter is melted, add from the dredger a dessert spoonful of flour, stirring the while.

  3. Add a pinch of grated nutmeg, salt, pepper, black and red pepper, but little of the latter, a dessert spoonful of chopped parsley and a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup.

Cook the fish

  1. Then put in your fish, cut in pieces as large as two fingers.

  2. Pour on the whole a glass of sherry or Madeira, and a small wineglass of good French brandy.

  3. Cover your dish, put dough all around the edge of the cover to keep in steam, and then put the dish in a moderate oven.

Serve

  1. When done, serve in the dish in which it was cooked, and put in a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

39Calories
3 gProtein
1 gFat
6 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Tarragon1 tsp dried (0.5g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Brandynot 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 Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). 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. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + tarragontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter (in the method)
Forms the rich base in which the flour and seasonings are cooked.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the butter and sauce as it is stirred in.
Mushroom catsup
Adds deep savoury umami flavour to the sauce.
Brandy
Adds aromatic warmth and flavour to the poured liquid.
Fish (in the method)
Is the main ingredient that cooks gently in the sauce under steam.

The step that matters

Sealing the dish with dough. The dough seal keeps steam inside the covered dish, so the fish cooks gently in its own moist vapour rather than drying out in the oven.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, brandy, tarragon, vinegar, pepper, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, brandy, tarragon, vinegar, pepper, 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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