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Fish Stock

A broth made from fish head or bones, vegetables, and seasonings, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Fish Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the cod's head by removing the eyes and gills.

  2. Place the head or fish bones in a pot with water.

  3. Add sliced vegetables and seasonings.

Simmer

  1. Bring to a boil, then skim off any foam.

  2. Simmer for 3 hours.

  3. After 30 minutes, remove the flesh from the cod's head to serve in the soup.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cod's head or fish bones
Release gelatin and savory flavor into the water, giving the stock body and depth.
Onions
Add aroma and mild sweetness as they soften during the long simmer.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and color to the stock.
Turnip
Contributes subtle sweetness and earthy aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam after boiling. Foam carries coagulated proteins and impurities to the surface. Removing it early keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or scummy.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, fish, 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.

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