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Fish Stock

A broth made from fish, vegetables, and herbs simmered for two hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the stock

  1. Cut up the fish and place it in a pot with the other ingredients.

  2. Add the water and bring to a simmer.

  3. Simmer for 2 hours, skimming the liquid carefully.

Finish

  1. Strain the stock before use.

Optional richer stock

  1. For a richer stock, fry the vegetables and fish before adding the water.

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Lemon + carrottop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

  5. Beef + fishtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Trimmings of white fish
Provides the main fish flavour and gelatin-rich body to the stock.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and rounder flavour to the stock.
Beef or veal
Adds meaty depth and a fuller, richer body when used.
Rind of a lemon
Adds a bright citrus aroma that lifts the stock's flavour.

The step that matters

Skimming during the simmer. Simmering gently while skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that would otherwise cloud the stock. Boiling hard breaks these up and mixes them back in, leaving a murky, greasy result.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Avocadofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, fish, onion, carrot. 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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