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Stewed Fish

A fish stew made with butter, flour, marjoram, parsley, and optional onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Stewed Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Draw and wash the fish, then cut it into three or four pieces.

  2. Place the fish in a stewpan with enough hot water to prevent burning.

  3. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

Stew

  1. Skim the surface steadily for 30 minutes.

  2. Mix the butter and flour into a smooth paste, then add to the stew.

  3. Add the chopped marjoram, parsley, and sliced onion if desired.

  4. Cover and let it stew for another 30 minutes.

  5. Serve hot.

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. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it stews slowly in liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the broth as it melts into the stew.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, lightly body-filled sauce when mixed with butter.
Sweet marjoram
Contributes a warm, floral herbal aroma that perfumes the stewed fish.

The step that matters

Mix the butter and flour into a smooth paste before adding. Mixing butter and flour into a smooth paste first lets the flour disperse evenly, so it thickens the stew without forming lumps.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, butter, flour, marjoram, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, butter, flour, marjoram, 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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