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Bouillabaisse

A fish stew with onions, garlic, mussels, wine, and saffron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Bouillabaisse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat the sweet oil in a saucepan over high heat.

  2. Add the sliced onions and garlic, stirring to partially fry them, then remove from heat.

Simmer

  1. Cut the fish into 2-inch pieces and add to the pan along with the mussels.

  2. Pour in the wine, add the bay leaf, cloves, lemon slices, tomato juice, salt, pepper, and saffron.

  3. Cover and simmer until the fish is cooked through.

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. Haddock + turbottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together12 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Garlic + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,893 recipes

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

  4. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the body of the stew, becoming tender and flaky as it cooks through.
Onions
Softened and partly fried, they add sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.
Garlic
Partly fried, it releases aroma that flavours the broth.
Wine
Adds acidity and aromatic complexity, helping to lift and balance the broth.
Mussels
Release their briny juices into the broth as they cook, adding savoury depth.
Saffron
Contributes its distinctive aroma and golden colour to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer until the fish is cooked through. Fish protein sets and toughens if overcooked, so it should be simmered gently just until opaque and flaky. Mussels also open as they cook, so the broth stays clear and flavourful.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, garlic, fish, haddock, turbot, wine, lemon):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, garlic, fish, haddock, turbot, wine, 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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