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Flounders, Souchet of

A fish stew of flounders cooked with fine vegetables, herbs, and peppercorns.

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. Prepare the flounders by removing the gills and placing them in a deep sauté pan.

Poach the fish

  1. Add the sliced onion, bunch of herbs, peppercorns, and a little salt to the pan.

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

  3. Reduce heat and cook gently for about 10 minutes.

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

Serve

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

  2. 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 in the broth.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and colour to the fine vegetable garnish.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and a firm, tender bite to the vegetable garnish.
Parsnip
Adds sweetness and body to the fine vegetable garnish.

The step that matters

Gentle cooking of the fish. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil cooks the delicate fish evenly and keeps its flesh tender and intact instead of tough and flaking apart.

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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