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Stewed Cod Fish, in Bro'wn Sauce

A stewed cod fish served in a brown sauce made with gravy, port wine, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Port wine and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 598 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Stewed Cod Fish, in Bro'wn Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the fish

  1. Flour the fish slices well and fry them quickly in a hot pan until golden brown.

  2. Remove the fish and drain it on a sieve.

Stew the fish

  1. Arrange the fish in a clean stewpan and pour in enough boiling brown gravy to nearly cover it.

  2. Add the port wine or claret, chili vinegar or lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and salt.

  3. Stew the fish gently until it just begins to break apart.

  4. Carefully lift the fish onto a hot serving dish.

Finish the sauce and serve

  1. In the remaining gravy, stir in the softened butter mixed with flour and ground mace.

  2. Bring the sauce to a boil for one minute, then pour it over the fish and serve immediately.

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. Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cod fish
Forms the main body of the dish, firming when fried and flaking when stewed.
All-purpose flour
Coats the fish for browning and thickens the sauce with the butter.
Brown gravy
Forms the savory base of the sauce that the fish is stewed in.
Port wine or claret
Adds depth and a fruity sweetness to the sauce.
Chili vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, glossy finish.

The step that matters

Stew the fish gently until it just begins to break apart. High heat or long simmering toughens and overcooks the fish, making it dry and ragged. Gentle stewing cooks the flesh through while keeping it tender and intact.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, flour, port wine, vinegar, pepper, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, port wine, vinegar, pepper, butter. 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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