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Trout, Stewed

A stew of trout simmered with stock, port, onion, herbs, and a brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Trout, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Empty, wash, and dry the trout well.

  2. Place the trout in a stewpan and pour in enough stock to barely cover them.

  3. Add the port or claret, onion, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, mace, pepper, and salt.

Stew and thicken

  1. Simmer gently until the fish are cooked, about 30 to 45 minutes.

  2. Carefully lift the fish out and place them on a hot dish.

  3. Strain the gravy and thicken it with brown thickening or flour and butter.

  4. Stir the gravy over the fire until it coats the spoon, then pour it over the fish and serve 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. Thyme + clovetop 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

Trout
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently in the seasoned stock until flaky.
Port or claret
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the stewing liquid and gravy.
Brown thickening or flour and butter
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the fish and spoon.
Stock
Provides the liquid that gently cooks the fish and forms the base of the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the fish are cooked. A gentle simmer cooks the trout evenly and keeps the flesh moist and intact; a hard boil can break up the fish and toughen the protein.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, parsley, thyme, clove, pepper, 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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