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Fish Stew

A stew of sole, turbot or brill fillets, mussels, mushrooms, egg yolk, stock, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Fish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the fish

  1. Place the sole, fish fillets, mussels, and mushrooms in a casserole or shallow earthenware dish.

  2. Cook until almost done, then drain off the sauce.

  3. Arrange the mussels and mushrooms around the fish.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the sauce and thicken it with the egg yolk.

  2. If needed, add a little strong clear stock thickened with butter and flour.

Finish and serve

  1. Cover and cook for 2-3 more minutes, then 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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Mushroom + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk
Thickens the strained sauce as it gently heats, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the stock if the sauce needs more body.
Mussels
Release their liquor, adding a briny flavour to the sauce and dish.
Button mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavour to the stew as they cook.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens through gentle heat; if the sauce boils after it is added, the yolk can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth one.

“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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