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How to Stew Fish

A fish stew made with broken fish shells, butter, wine or vinegar, anchovy, sauce, lemon, spices, and served with sliced lemon and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

How to Stew Fish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the broken fish shells in water.

  2. Add butter rolled in flour, white wine or vinegar, anchovy, Cornubian sauce, soy, or ketchup, and lemon juice.

  3. Season with cayenne, black pepper, salt, nutmeg, and pounded mace.

  4. Warm gently over low heat until it begins to simmer.

  5. Serve garnished with sliced lemon and bread sippets.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Rolled in flour, it thickens the broth and gives the stew a richer body.
White wine or vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the butter.
Anchovy
Contributes savoury depth, adding a salty, umami background to the broth.
Lemon juice
Adds sharp acidity that lifts the flavour of the stew.

The step that matters

Warm gently over low heat until it begins to simmer. Butter thickened with flour can separate or scorch if boiled hard, and the wine or lemon can turn harsh. Gentle heat keeps the broth smooth and well blended.

“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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