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Shell Fish

A stew of shellfish cooked with butter, browned flour, sherry, and egg yolk, served with green pickles and toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Shell Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. Combine shellfish in a saucepan with a closely-fitting lid.

  2. Stew gently for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Add butter, browned flour mixed with cold water, and brown sherry.

  4. Mix the egg yolk with a little hot liquid to prevent curdling, then add to the saucepan.

  5. Bring to a boil, then transfer to a covered dish.

Serve

  1. Serve with green pickles and slices of toast.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + sherrytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,643 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

Shellfish
Forms the main body of the stew and supplies its savoury flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the stew.
Browned flour
Thickens the liquid and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Brown sherry
Adds depth and a mellow sweetness to the broth.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the stew, giving it a silkier texture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk can curdle if it meets very hot liquid directly. Mixing it first with a little hot liquid gently raises its temperature, so it blends in smoothly and thickens the stew without turning grainy.

“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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