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Normandy Fish

A baked fish dish from Normandy with butter, flour, spices, sherry, brandy, and tarragon vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Normandy Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in an earthenware dish over coals.

  2. Add flour, stirring continuously.

  3. Mix in nutmeg, salt, black pepper, red pepper, parsley, and mushroom catsup.

Cook and serve

  1. Cut fish into pieces the size of two fingers and add to the dish.

  2. Pour sherry or Madeira and brandy over the fish.

  3. Cover the dish with a lid sealed with dough to trap steam.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  5. Serve in the dish it was cooked in and drizzle with tarragon vinegar.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish and cooks through in the trapped steam.
Butter
Carries the flavours and enriches the sauce with fat for a rich mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the butter and fat mixture so the liquids form a cohesive sauce.
Sherry or madeira
Adds acidity and aromatic sweetness that flavour the fish and sauce as it cooks.
Brandy
Adds aromatic depth to the liquid poured over the fish.

The step that matters

Sealing the lid with dough. A tight seal traps steam so the fish cooks gently in its own moisture and liquids. A leaking lid lets steam escape, which can dry the fish and concentrate the sauce unevenly.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, flour, pepper, parsley, mushroom, sherry. 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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