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Tench, Stewed, with Wine

A stewed tench simmered in stock and sherry, thickened with a flour slurry and seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Tench, Stewed, with Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the fish

  1. Place the cleaned tench in a saucepan.

  2. Add 3 cups of stock and 1 cup of sherry.

  3. Boil gently for 40 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a small bowl, mix 1 teaspoon of flour with 1 tablespoon of cold stock until smooth.

  2. Strain ½ pint of the cooking stock into a fresh saucepan.

  3. Add the flour mixture.

  4. Stir over heat for 3-4 minutes until the sauce thickens.

  5. Season with pepper and salt.

Serve

  1. Serve the tench on a hot dish.

  2. Pour the sauce over it.

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. Sherry + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sherry + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,643 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Tench
The main fish, which is cooked gently in the stock and sherry until tender.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce as it heats.
Sherry
Adds acidity and a wine flavour to the poaching liquid and sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour mixture into the hot stock. Flour must be blended smooth in cold stock first and then stirred over heat, otherwise it clumps. Stirring keeps the starch granules dispersed so they swell evenly and thicken the sauce.

“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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