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Stewed Cod Fish, in Brown Sauce

A stewed cod fish finished with a brown gravy sauce enriched with port wine, chili vinegar, and butter.

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 Brown Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and fry

  1. Remove the skin from the fish and dust it with flour.

  2. Fry the fish quickly in a hot pan until golden brown, then drain on a sieve.

Stew and finish

  1. Place the fish in a clean stew pan and pour in enough boiling brown gravy to nearly cover it.

  2. Add ½ to ⅔ cup of port wine or claret, 2 teaspoons of chili vinegar or the juice of ½ lemon, cayenne pepper, and salt to taste.

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

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

  5. In the gravy, stir in 1½ ounces of butter kneaded with 1 tablespoon of flour and a pinch of ground mace.

  6. Boil the sauce 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
Firms up when fried and then gently breaks apart as it stews in the sauce.
Flour
Dusted on the fish to help it brown in the pan and thicken the sauce.
Butter
Kneaded with flour and stirred in to enrich and smooth the sauce.
Port wine or claret
Adds depth, sweetness and body to the brown sauce.
Chili vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich brown gravy.

The step that matters

Stew the fish gently until it begins to break apart. High heat or vigorous boiling toughens and dries fish proteins, so it becomes ragged and dry. Gentle simmering keeps the flesh moist and tender while it slowly flakes.

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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