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Blue-Fish, Matelote Sauce

A baked bluefish served with a sauce of onion, parsley, garlic, wine, broth, flour, butter, anchovy essence, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Blue-Fish, Matelote Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Poach the fish

  1. Clean the bluefish and place it in a narrow fish boiler.

  2. Add sliced onion, parsley, bruised garlic, salt, pepper, butter, white wine, and white broth.

  3. Boil, cover, and cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes, basting frequently.

  4. Drain the fish and keep it warm.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the cooking liquid and thicken it with flour cooked in butter.

  2. Boil the thickened liquid for 10 minutes.

  3. Finish the sauce with butter, red pepper, anchovy essence, and lemon juice; mix well and strain again.

Serve

  1. Dish up the fish, garnish with mussels and small onions, pour the sauce over, and serve.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

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

  3. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Bluefish (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently so it stays moist in the liquid.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce body when cooked in butter.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce as it is whisked in at the end.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the poaching liquid, balancing the fish.
Anchovy essence
Adds a concentrated savory, salty depth that rounds out the finished sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances its fat.

The step that matters

Thickening the cooking liquid with buttered flour. Flour must be cooked in the butter first so its starch swells smoothly; adding it raw or unevenly causes lumps and a pasty taste. Strain the liquid to keep the sauce smooth.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, onion, parsley, garlic, pepper, butter, white wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, onion, parsley, garlic, pepper, butter, white wine. 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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