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The Head of a Halibut Stewed

A stew made from a halibut head with anchovies, herbs, spices, and a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and rosemary match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 178 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The Head of a Halibut Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Fill a stewpan nearly full with water.

  2. Add anchovies, marjoram, rosemary, cloves, white pepper, and ginger.

  3. Stew for 30 minutes, then strain the mixture.

Cook and finish the stew

  1. Add the halibut head and stew until tender.

  2. Thicken the gravy with flour rolled in butter.

  3. Add anchovies or essence and nutmeg.

  4. Before serving, stir in white wine and forcemeat balls.

  5. Season with salt to taste.

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. Marjoram + rosemarytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together178 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Rosemary + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Rosemary + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together113 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut head (in the method)
Provides the main fish body and flavor for the stew.
Flour
Rolled in butter, it thickens the gravy into a smooth body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and carries the flour to thicken the gravy.
White wine
Adds acidity and a bright aroma to the finished stew.
Forcemeat
Adds soft, savory dumplings that absorb the broth and add texture.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with flour rolled in butter. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps; rolling it in butter first coats the grains so they disperse and thicken the gravy smoothly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (marjoram, rosemary, clove, ginger, flour, butter, anchovy):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against marjoram, rosemary, clove, ginger, flour, butter, anchovy. 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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