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Matelote, a LA

A fish stew cooked with onions, herbs, cloves, pepper, salt, broth, wine, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 13,144 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut the fish into pieces and place in a stewpan.

  2. Add sliced onions, sweet herbs, cloves, pepper, and salt.

  3. Pour in enough broth and white wine to cover the fish.

Cook and finish

  1. Cook over a brisk fire for about 20 minutes.

  2. Strain the liquid and keep the fish hot in the pan.

  3. In a separate saucepan, melt butter and add small onions.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Clove + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,144 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. White wine + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Fish + buttertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Onion + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Fish + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish and is cooked gently in the braising liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour into the finished dish.
Small onions
Add sweetness and soft texture as they cook in the butter.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Cook over a brisk fire for about 20 minutes. Fish is delicate and overcooks quickly; too much heat can make it dry and break apart. Watching the timing and keeping the pieces intact helps them stay tender and moist.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, onion, pepper, white wine, butter):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, onion, pepper, white wine, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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