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To Boil Skate or Ray

A boiled skate or ray served with cockle, shrimp, or mussel sauce and garnished with horseradish or barberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and horseradish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Boil Skate or Ray

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the skate or ray thoroughly and cut it into long, narrow pieces.

Boil and keep warm

  1. Boil the pieces in water with a little salt for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove from water, peel off the skin, and return to the pan with a little vinegar.

  3. Boil until cooked through, then drain and cover to keep warm.

Serve

  1. Serve quickly with cockle, shrimp, or mussel sauce, garnished with horseradish or barberries.

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. Vinegar + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sauce + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together775 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sauce + shrimptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,423 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Shrimp + horseradishtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together193 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Vinegar + shrimptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together862 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

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

What each ingredient does

Skate or ray
Firm, flaky flesh that becomes tender and delicate when gently simmered.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the mild flavour of the fish.

The step that matters

Boil until cooked through, then drain and cover to keep warm. Fish proteins toughen and dry out when overcooked, so it should be removed as soon as it is cooked through and kept covered to hold in heat and moisture.

Swap the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sauce, shrimp):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishthe original
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sauce, shrimp. 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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