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Boiled Sheepshead

A boiled sheepshead fish seasoned with onion, herbs, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Boiled Sheepshead

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and thoroughly clean the fish.

  2. Make an 'S' cut on either side of the fish to prevent puffing and ensure even cooking.

  3. Tie the fish securely with cord or twine around the body.

Boil and serve

  1. Place the fish in a deep saucepan and add enough boiling water for it to swim.

  2. Add a tablespoon of mashed spice, sliced onion, bay leaves, chopped parsley, French vinegar, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cover and boil for 10 minutes.

  4. Prepare a cream sauce and serve immediately.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  5. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Sheepshead
Is the main fish, cooked whole in simmering liquid until its flesh turns opaque and flakes.
French vinegar
Adds a light acidity to the poaching liquid, brightening the flavour of the fish.

The step that matters

Cover and boil for 10 minutes. Boiling too hard or too long can toughen and break up delicate fish flesh. A steady simmer under a cover cooks the fish evenly while keeping it moist and intact.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (thyme, parsley, marjoram, vinegar, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against thyme, parsley, marjoram, vinegar, pepper. 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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