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Bluefish a LA Bercy

A French-style bluefish dish cooked with shallots, butter, fish stock, and finished with lemon juice and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Bluefish a LA Bercy

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the fish

  1. Cut the bluefish into pieces.

  2. In a buttered pan, place the chopped shallots.

  3. Lay the bluefish on top of the shallots.

  4. Season the fish.

  5. Moisten with the fish stock.

  6. Cover with buttered paper.

  7. Cook until done.

  8. Drain the fish.

  9. Arrange it on a dish.

Make the sauce

  1. Reduce the fish stock almost completely.

  2. Add ½ cup of velouté.

  3. Incorporate the butter.

  4. Season to taste.

  5. Finish with lemon juice and chopped parsley.

  6. Pour the sauce over the fish 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Bluefish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently until it is flaky and tender.
Shallots
Release aromatic flavour into the poaching liquid and fish as they cook beneath it.
Fish stock
Moistens the fish while poaching and reduces to a concentrated base for the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy texture to the finished sauce.
Velouté (in the method)
Thickens the reduced stock into a body-rich sauce that coats the fish.

The step that matters

Reduce the fish stock almost completely. Concentrating the stock builds the sauce's flavour and body. If it is under-reduced the sauce tastes thin, and if it boils too hard or too long it can turn bitter or salty once butter and velouté are added.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bluefish, fish, butter, lemon, parsley):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bluefish, fish, butter, lemon, parsley. 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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