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Kitchiner's Fish Sauce

A fermented anchovy sauce made with claret, mushroom ketchup, walnut pickle, lemon peel, horseradish, pepper, allspice, cayenne, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Kitchiner's Fish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Combine

  1. Mix together a pint of claret, a pint of mushroom ketchup, half a pint of walnut pickle, four ounces of pounded anchovy, an ounce of fresh lemon peel pared thin, and the same quantity of shallot or small onion.

  2. Add an ounce of scraped horseradish, half an ounce of black pepper, half an ounce of allspice mixed, and the same quantity of cayenne and celery seed.

Infuse

  1. Infuse these ingredients in a wide-mouthed bottle (closely sealed) for a fortnight, shaking the mixture every day.

Strain and bottle

  1. Then strain and bottle it for use.

  2. Put it up in small bottles, filling them quite full.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

262Calories
32 gProtein
13 gFat
6 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Anchovy100g210
Walnut1 walnut half (4g)26
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Horseradishnot 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 Leslie. 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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Horseradish + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

  5. Walnut + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovy
Dissolves into the liquid to add deep, savoury umami flavour.
Mushroom catchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami depth that rounds out the sauce.
Claret
Its acidity and alcohol extract and carry flavours while helping preserve the liquid.
Walnut pickle
Contributes tangy, dark, pickled flavour and acidity to the sauce.
Horseradish
Its pungent volatile compounds give the sauce a sharp, biting heat.
Lemon peel
Its aromatic oils add bright citrus fragrance to the infused liquid.

The step that matters

Infuse with a tightly sealed bottle and daily shaking. A tight seal keeps aromatic compounds from escaping and the liquid from spoiling. Shaking daily brings solids into contact with the liquid, so flavours extract evenly over the full fortnight.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (anchovy, mushroom, lemon, horseradish, pepper, allspice):

  1. Walnutthe original
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Chickpeafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against anchovy, mushroom, lemon, horseradish, pepper, allspice. 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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