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Stock, for Brown or White Soups

A fish stock made from flounder, eel, and other fish with aromatics, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stock, for Brown or White Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the fish into pieces.

Make the stock

  1. Place the fish in a stewpan and cover with water.

  2. Add mace, onion, celery, parsley roots, pepper, salt, and sweet herbs.

  3. Cover the stewpan and simmer.

  4. Strain the stock for use.

Brown variation

  1. For brown soup, fry the fish in butter until brown before stewing.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Flounders
Provide the main body and flavor of the stock as they simmer.
Eels
Add richness and body to the stock through their gelatin-rich flesh.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness to the stock as it simmers.
Celery
Contributes savory, vegetal aroma to the stock.
Parsley roots
Add earthy, aromatic flavor to the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the lid on. A gentle simmer keeps the stock clear and avoids breaking up the fish, while a hard boil clouds the liquid and can make it greasy and cloudy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, onion, clove, celery, parsley, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, onion, clove, celery, parsley, pepper. 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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