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Water Souchy

A fish stew made with cayenne pepper, parsley, lemon, and parsley roots in a broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon 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 ↓

Water Souchy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine cayenne pepper, minced parsley, lemon juice, a pinch of coarse sea salt, and water in a pot.

  2. Stew the mixture for about an hour to create a strong broth.

  3. Strain the broth.

Cook the fish

  1. Add the fish and parsley roots to the broth in a clean stewpan.

  2. Skim off any scum that rises.

  3. Stew the fish for 10-12 minutes without breaking it.

  4. Add the juice of half a lemon two minutes before serving.

  5. Carefully remove the fish with a slotted spoon and place it in a deep dish.

  6. Pour the broth over the fish.

  7. Remove the parsley roots.

  8. Serve very hot.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the stew, becoming tender and flaky when gently simmered.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the broth and balances the savoury, spiced flavour.
Parsley
Contributes a fresh, herbal aroma to the broth, with roots adding earthy depth.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat and pungency that gives the broth its sharp, spiced character.

The step that matters

Stew the fish for 10-12 minutes without breaking it. Fish proteins set and firm as they heat, and vigorous boiling or stirring breaks the flesh apart, so a gentle simmer keeps the pieces intact.

“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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