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Stewed Fish

A fish stew made with fillets, stock, wine, and optional caramel or mushroom ketchup, finished with egg yolk and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 479 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Stewed Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Clean and prepare the fish in fillets or pieces. Set aside.

  2. Make fish stock with heads, livers, bones, herbs, vegetables, and anchovy. Add wine.

  3. Strain and slightly thicken the stock.

Stew and finish

  1. Add fish pieces to the stock and simmer for 12-15 minutes.

  2. For a brown stew, add caramel and mushroom ketchup.

  3. For a richer dish, stir in beaten egg yolk with butter and some stew gravy off the heat before serving.

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 + ketchuptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together479 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish heads, livers, bones
Build the stock's savoury depth and body during the short simmer.
French white wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the stock as it cooks.
Egg yolk
Thickens and enriches the gravy when stirred in off the heat.
Butter
Adds fat and a smooth, rich finish to the gravy.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolk off the heat. Egg yolk thickens by gentle heat. If the stew is still boiling when it goes in, the yolk can scramble and turn grainy. Removing the pan from the heat first lets it thicken the gravy smoothly.

“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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