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Mackerel Stewed with Wine

A stew of mackerel cooked in wine, butter, flour, spices, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mackerel Stewed with Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Whisk in the flour until smooth.

  3. Add the mace, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  4. Gradually pour in the claret and bring to a boil.

Stew and serve

  1. Gently add the mackerel and stew for 15 to 20 minutes, turning halfway through.

  2. Carefully remove the mackerel and place on a serving dish.

  3. Stir the mustard into the sauce, bring to a boil, and pour over the fish.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Mace + port winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together695 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Butter and flour 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

Mackerel
The main protein, which is gently cooked in the wine sauce until tender.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and wine into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Claret
Provides the liquid and wine flavour that the fish stews in.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharpness and a tangy edge that cuts through the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Whisking the flour into the butter. Flour must be fully mixed into the melted butter and cooked briefly before the liquid goes in. Otherwise lumps form and the sauce stays floury and dull. Adding the wine gradually keeps the sauce smooth as it thickens.

Swap the mace

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

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

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