Name: Shrewsbury Court-bouillon
Ingredients: 4 medium-sized or 5 small onions, finely chopped; ¾ lb fish (any firm-fleshed kind); 30 large clams, cleaned; 1 cup stewed tomatoes; 6 large sea biscuits, broken into pieces; ½ cup clam juice; ½ sweet pepper, finely chopped; 2 potatoes, cut into pieces (optional); ½ cup red wine; ½ tablespoon butter or drippings; small bunch of celery leaves, chopped; larger bunch of parsley leaves, chopped; salt, to taste; pepper, to taste; ground cloves, to taste; ground allspice, to taste; nutmeg or ground mace, to taste

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + red winetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Onion + biscuittop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together428 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

Fish: Forms the main body of the dish and flakes into the broth as it stews.
Clams: Release their juices into the broth, adding a briny, savoury depth of flavour.
Sea biscuits: Absorb liquid and thicken the broth as they break down during stewing.
Stewed tomatoes: Add acidity and body, giving the broth a rounded, tangy base.
Onions: Build sweetness and aroma when fried golden in fat before the liquid goes in.

The step that matters

Frying the onions until golden. Browning the onions in fat develops sweetness and deeper flavour through caramelisation, which forms the base of the broth. Pale, undercooked onions leave the stew tasting flat and raw.

Swap the potato

The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, fish, clam, tomato, biscuit, pepper, red wine):

Potatothe original
Capsicumfits about as well
Lettucefits less well
Spinachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, fish, clam, tomato, biscuit, pepper, red wine. 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.

Shrewsbury Court-bouillon