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Gravy, White, for Fish

A white gravy made by simmering fish with herbs, lemon rind, cloves, peppercorns, and salt, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,150 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Gravy, White, for Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a saucepan, combine fish pieces, water, herbs, lemon rind, cloves, peppercorns, and salt.

  2. Cover and simmer gently for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the liquid into a clean saucepan.

Make the gravy

  1. In the same saucepan, mix flour and butter until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the strained liquid, stirring constantly.

  3. Boil for 15 minutes.

  4. Serve.

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. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Clove + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,671 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Pike or fish
Gives the liquid its main flavour and body as it simmers.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a gravy when cooked with butter and stock.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth fat that carries flavour and helps form the thickened base.

The step that matters

Mixing flour and butter until smooth. Flour must be fully blended with the butter before liquid is added, otherwise it clumps. Adding the strained liquid gradually while stirring keeps the gravy smooth as it thickens.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, lemon, flour, butter):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, lemon, flour, butter. 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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