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Olives En Ragout

Olives stewed in stock, sherry, and anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 880 recipes. Both carry hexanol, which smells green, fruity. The science ↓

Olives En Ragout

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the pits from the olives.

  2. Place the olives in a pan and cover with stock.

  3. Add sherry and essence of anchovy.

Stew

  1. Stew gently in a tightly covered pan for about 30 minutes.

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. Olive + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together880 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  2. Olive + sherrytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together820 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Sherry + anchovytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Olives
Provide the main flavour and texture of the ragout.
Stock
Adds moisture and savoury depth as the olives gently simmer.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic richness to the braising liquid.
Essence of anchovy
Adds a salty, savoury note that deepens the overall flavour.

The step that matters

Stew gently in a tightly covered pan. Gentle, covered heat keeps the liquid from reducing too fast and lets the olives soften and absorb flavour evenly. Boiling vigorously can toughen the olives and concentrate the liquid unevenly.

“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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