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Fish Stock

A liquid made by simmering fish bones, skin, water, milk, shallot, bay leaf, mace, and peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,432 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Fish Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine fish bones, skin, water, milk, shallot, bay leaf, mace, and peppercorns in a pot.

  2. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture to obtain the stock.

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 + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Milk + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  3. Fish + shallottop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together174 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + macetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Milk + shallottop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together458 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish bones and skin
Release flavour and body into the liquid as they simmer.
Milk
Adds softness and a rounder, richer mouthfeel to the stock.
Shallot
Contributes a mild, sweet aromatic background flavour.
Bay leaf
Adds a subtle herbal aroma that infuses the liquid during simmering.
Peppercorns
Add gentle warm spice that infuses the stock during simmering.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 10 minutes. Keep the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil. Milk can curdle and scorch when it boils hard, and vigorous boiling makes stock cloudy and can draw out bitter flavours from the bones.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, mace. 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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