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Perch, Stewed

A stewed perch with onion, herbs, and a sauce of claret, mushroom ketchup, anchovy essence, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Perch, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash, scale, and empty the perch, removing the gills.

  2. Place the perch in a stewpan and cover with weak stock or water.

  3. Add the sliced onion, cloves, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper.

  4. Simmer gently for 15-20 minutes until the fish is cooked.

  5. Press the flesh to check doneness; it should give way to the touch.

  6. Remove the perch and drain them.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the cooking liquid, then thicken it with flour and butter.

  2. Boil the sauce quickly for a few minutes.

  3. Stir in the claret, mushroom ketchup, essence of anchovy, cayenne, and chopped parsley.

Serve

  1. Skin the fish, keeping the fins, and place them on a hot dish.

  2. Strain the sauce over the fish and arrange the fins on each side.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Perch
The main fish; it is cooked gently in the stock until the flesh becomes tender and flakes.
Flour
Thickens the strained cooking liquid into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour, adding richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour to the finished sauce.
Essence of anchovy
Adds savoury depth and a salty, umami background to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 15-20 minutes until the fish is cooked. Boiling vigorously can break the delicate flesh apart and toughen it. A gentle simmer cooks the fish through while keeping it intact and moist, so checking doneness by pressing the flesh matters.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, parsley, thyme, pepper, flour, butter, mushroom):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, parsley, thyme, pepper, flour, butter, mushroom. 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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