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Lake and Pond Fish Soup

A soup made by stewing freshwater fish with tomato, carrots, leeks, onion, herbs, and water, then adding boiled seasonal roots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Lake and Pond Fish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash the fish in salt and water.

Make the soup

  1. Stew the fish with tomato, carrots, leeks, fried onion, sweet herbs, and enough water to cover them until reduced to a pulp.

  2. Strain the liquid and boil it for another hour until smooth.

  3. Chop seasonal roots and boil them in milk or water.

  4. Add the roots to the soup and simmer for 15 minutes.

  5. Season with mace and celery if using milk, or with savory sauces if using water.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 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

Fresh-water fish
Forms the body of the soup, breaking down into a thick, flavorful base.
Tomato
Adds acidity and savory flavor to the broth.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and body as they soften into the stew.
Leeks
Add a mild onion-like aroma and depth of flavor.
Onion
Fried first, it adds browned, savory flavor to the base.
Seasonal roots
Add texture and starch once chopped and simmered into the soup.

The step that matters

Reducing the stew to a pulp and straining. The fish and vegetables must cook until they fall apart so the strained liquid carries their flavor and a smooth texture. Stopping early leaves the soup grainy and weak, while the extended boil after straining concentrates the flavor.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, tomato, carrot, leek, onion, milk, celery):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, tomato, carrot, leek, onion, milk, celery. 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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