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To Stew Fish

A fish stew made by stuffing bread into the fish, frying, then simmering with onions and optional wine, mushrooms, and oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Wine and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,632 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol, which smells allspice, anise. The science ↓

To Stew Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale and prepare the fish.

  2. Sew a piece of bread into the fish's belly to absorb any unpleasant flavors.

  3. Fry the fish until golden brown.

  4. Carefully cut the stitches, remove the bread, and place the fish in a stewpan.

Make the gravy and stew

  1. Fry the onions until soft, then prepare the gravy as directed.

  2. Pour the gravy over the fish and let it stew until cooked through.

  3. Optionally, add wine, pickled mushrooms, and oysters to enrich the gravy.

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. Wine + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  2. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 stew, becoming tender and flaky as it cooks in the gravy.
Bread
Placed inside the fish to absorb unpleasant flavors, then removed before stewing.
Onions
Softened by frying, they add sweetness and body to the gravy.
Wine
Optional; adds acidity and depth of flavor to the gravy.
Oysters
Optional; add a briny, savoury richness to the gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the fish until golden brown. Browning the fish before stewing develops flavour through the Maillard reaction and helps the skin hold its shape, so the fish does not break apart in the gravy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, bread, wine, mushroom, oyster, pepper):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, bread, wine, mushroom, oyster, pepper. 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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