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A stew of river fish simmered in beef gravy with spices, anchovies, mustard, and walnut ketchup, served with fried bread and roe.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

To Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald and clean the fish, taking care of the roe.

Make the stew

  1. Place the fish in a stew pan with beef gravy, onion, cloves, Jamaica pepper, black pepper, and port wine.

  2. Simmer covered until nearly done.

  3. Add chopped anchovies, made mustard, walnut ketchup, and butter rolled in flour.

  4. Shake the pan and let the gravy boil for a few minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried bread, fried roe, horseradish, and lemon.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Clove + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mustard + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together849 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

River fish
Forms the main body of the stew and provides the dish's core protein.
Butter rolled in flour
Thickens the gravy as the flour starches swell and the butter adds richness.
Beef gravy
Forms the savoury liquid base that the fish simmers in.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the sauce.
Anchovies
Adds savoury depth that rounds out the sauce without a obvious fishy taste.
Made mustard
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the gravy and butter.

The step that matters

Adding the butter rolled in flour and boiling. Flour needs to be fully incorporated and brought to a boil so its starch swells and thickens the gravy; if it is added unevenly or not boiled, lumps and a raw floury taste can remain.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, beef, onion, clove, pepper, port wine, mustard):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Walnutthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Chickpeafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, beef, onion, clove, pepper, port wine, mustard. 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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