Skip to main content
Main

Fish Stock.

A clear liquid made by simmering fish bones, herbs, onion, mace, lemon peel, cayenne, peppercorns, and salt in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Fish and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,889 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fish Stock.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the fish bones and skin.

Make the stock

  1. Combine the fish bones, lemon peel, onion, herbs, mace, cayenne, white peppercorns, salt, and cold water in a stewpan.

  2. Bring to a boil, then skim well.

  3. Simmer gently for several hours.

  4. Strain through a fine sieve and set aside until needed.

  5. When cold, remove every particle of fat.

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. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Mace + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  3. Mace + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,315 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Fish + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Lemon + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,646 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 bones
Provide the main body and gelatin that give the stock its flavor and body.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory depth as it softens during the long simmer.
Herbs
Contribute aromatic flavor that infuses into the water during simmering.

The step that matters

Skim well after the boil. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and impurities that would otherwise cloud the stock and muddy its flavor.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, lemon, onion):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, lemon, onion. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesFried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipes