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Fish Stock

A clear stock made by simmering fish bones, vegetables, herbs, and spices in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Fish Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Put the fish bones and trimmings, turnip, carrot, leek, parsley, peppercorns, cloves, and mace into a pan.

  2. Cover with cold water and simmer for three hours, skimming carefully throughout.

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 + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bones and trimmings of any fish
Release gelatin and savoury flavour into the liquid during long simmering, giving body to the stock.
Cold water
Acts as the solvent that draws flavour and gelatin out of the bones as it heats.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and a rounded aromatic background to the stock.
Turnip
Contributes mild sweetness and earthy aroma to the stock.
White part of a leek
Adds a mild onion-like aroma that supports the fish flavour.

The step that matters

Skimming carefully throughout. As the stock heats, coagulated proteins and fat rise to the surface as grey scum. Removing them regularly keeps the stock clear and stops impurities from clouding it or tasting bitter.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, turnip, carrot, leek, parsley, clove):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, turnip, carrot, leek, parsley, clove. 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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