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Flounders, Souchet of

A fish stew of flounder cooked with carrot, turnip, parsnip, onion, herbs, peppercorns, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Flounders, Souchet of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the carrot, turnip, and parsnip into very fine strips.

  2. Cook the vegetables in slightly salted water or fish stock until tender.

  3. Trim the flounders and place them in a deep sauté pan.

  4. Add the sliced onion, herbs, peppercorns, and a little salt.

Poach and serve

  1. Pour in enough water to cover the fish and bring to a boil.

  2. Cook gently for about 10 minutes.

  3. Remove the fish and place it on a deep serving dish.

  4. Sprinkle the cooked vegetables and finely chopped parsley over the fish.

  5. Add a little of the fish cooking liquid and serve.

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. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Parsnip + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Flounders
Provide the delicate white fish that is gently poached until flaky.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and colour as fine strips over the fish.
Turnip
Adds mild, slightly sweet flavour and texture as fine strips.
Parsnip
Adds earthy sweetness and texture as fine strips.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil, then cook gently. Boiling hard after the fish goes in can toughen and break up the delicate flesh. Once the water boils, keep it at a gentle simmer so the fish poaches evenly and stays moist.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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