Why it works: Fish and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,341 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Water Souchy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the broth
In a pot, add enough water to just cover the fish.
Add ½ cup of coarse sea salt, 12 white peppercorns, green parsley, and parsley roots.
Simmer until the parsley roots are tender, about 30 to 60 minutes.
Cook the fish
Clean the fish, removing any brown skin, and cut into 2‑inch portions.
Add the fish to the pot and remove any scum that rises.
Stew the fish gently for 8 to 12 minutes, being careful not to overcook.
Before serving, stir in minced parsley or boil small branches of parsley in a separate saucepan.
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.
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Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,341 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Forms the body of the stew and gives the broth its savoury, delicate flavour.
- Parsley roots
- Release aromatic flavour into the broth as they simmer until tender.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the broth and draws out flavour from the fish and aromatics.
The step that matters
Stewing the fish gently. Fish proteins toughen and turn dry when boiled hard or left too long, so the stew should hold at a gentle simmer and be checked at the shortest time.
“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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