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Marinade for Fish, Economical

A savory fish marinade made with onions, shallots, garlic, carrot, butter, wine, herbs, cloves, peppers, salt, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Marinade for Fish, Economical

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Brown the minced onions, shallots, garlic, and carrot in the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Simmer the mixture for 2-3 hours over low heat with the wine.

  3. Add the bunch of sweet herbs, pounded cloves, pounded Jamaica peppers, salt, and cayenne.

  4. Strain the marinade for use.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  4. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Browns the vegetables and carries their flavour into the marinade.
Onions
Form the flavour base and add sweetness as they brown and soften.
Claret or british wine
Provides acidity and liquid, extracting flavour from the vegetables during the long simmer.
Jamaica peppers
Add a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the marinade.

The step that matters

Simmer over low heat. A long, gentle simmer lets the wine and vegetables release their flavour slowly. High heat can reduce the liquid too fast, scorch the minced vegetables, and leave a bitter taste.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, shallot, garlic, carrot, butter, wine, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, shallot, garlic, carrot, butter, wine, 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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