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Gravy for Fish Pies, Etc

A savory gravy made from fish, herbs, and anchovy essence, used for fish pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Gravy for Fish Pies, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the fish into small pieces and place them in a stewpan.

  2. Add water, pepper, salt, parsley, marjoram, thyme, mace, and the toasted bread.

  3. For brown gravy, fry the fish before stewing.

Stew and strain

  1. Simmer gently for at least 1 hour, then strain the mixture.

Finish the gravy

  1. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter, and add anchovy essence or pounded anchovies.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

Fish
Provides the body and flavour that the stock and gravy are built from.
Flour
Thickens the strained liquid into a smooth, lightly bodied gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the flour thicken the gravy smoothly.
Anchovy
Adds savoury depth and salt-like umami to the finished gravy.
Bread
Toasted bread adds body and a gently browned, roasted flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for at least 1 hour. A gentle simmer extracts flavour from the fish and aromatics without breaking the fish apart or making the stock cloudy. A hard boil can make the liquid cloudy and greasy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, parsley, marjoram, thyme, bread, flour):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, parsley, marjoram, thyme, bread, flour. 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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