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Basis of Fish-soups

A clear fish stock made by boiling fish, onions, lemon peel, and sweet herbs, then skimming and straining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Haddock and whiting match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 103 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Basis of Fish-soups

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the cut fish in 2 quarts of water.

  2. Add 2 onions, a piece of lemon peel, and a fagot of sweet herbs.

  3. Skim the liquid carefully.

  4. Strain the stock.

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. Haddock + whitingtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Fish + whitingtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Fish + haddocktop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together257 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Fish + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,924 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cut fish
Releases gelatin and flavour into the water, giving the stock its body and savour.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
Lemon peel
Adds a bright aromatic note that lifts the fish flavour.
Sweet herbs
Contribute gentle aromatic flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim the liquid carefully. As the stock heats, proteins and impurities rise to the surface as foam. Removing them keeps the stock clear and prevents a cloudy, bitter flavour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, haddock, whiting, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, haddock, whiting, lemon. 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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