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Water Souchy

A fish stew made with flounders, perch, tench, eels, or small white fish, simmered with salt, peppercorns, parsley, and parsley roots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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

  1. Add enough water to a pot to just cover the fish.

  2. Stir in the salt, white peppercorns, green parsley, and split parsley roots.

  3. Simmer until the parsley roots are tender, about 30 to 60 minutes.

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean the fish, removing any brown skin.

  2. Cut the fish into 2-inch portions.

Stew and serve

  1. Add the fish to the pot.

  2. Skim off any scum that rises.

  3. Stew the fish gently for 8 to 12 minutes, being careful not to overcook.

  4. Stir in minced parsley.

  5. Boil small branches of parsley in a separate saucepan.

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. Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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, becoming tender and flaky as it gently cooks in the broth.
Green parsley
Flavours the broth with a fresh, herbal aroma as it simmers.
Parsley roots
Release their earthy, savoury flavour into the broth during the long simmer.
White peppercorns
Add a mild, warm spiciness to the broth without visible specks.

The step that matters

Stew the fish gently. Fish proteins set and toughen when overcooked, turning dry and rubbery. Keeping the broth at a gentle simmer for the short stated time keeps the flesh moist and flaky.

“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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