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Stewed Fish

A simple fish stew with onions, stock, and Harvey sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash, dry, and season the fish with salt, pepper, and flour.

Cook and stew

  1. Fry the onions until golden.

  2. Add the fish to the pan with the onions and cook until browned.

  3. Pour in a little stock and let it stew.

  4. Stir in the Harvey sauce before serving.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Onion + fishtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Softened and browned in the pan, adding sweetness and savory depth to the base.
Fish
The main protein, which flakes and firms as it cooks through in the stew.
Flour
Coats the fish so it browns in the pan and helps thicken the cooking liquid.
Stock
Provides moisture and liquid for the fish to stew in, carrying flavor.
Harvey sauce
Adds a tangy, savory flavor stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Browning the fish. Fish dredged in flour browns best when the pan is hot and the pieces are dry. Wet fish steams instead, leaving it pale and sticking to the pan.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, flour, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, flour, sauce. 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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