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To Stew Fish

A simple fish stew made with vinegar, flour, butter, onion, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Stew Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the butter or dripping in a small stew-pan until hot.

  2. Fry the chopped onion in the hot fat until browned.

  3. Sprinkle the flour into the pan and stir until smooth.

  4. Add the vinegar, salt, pepper, and water, stirring until it boils.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the fish pieces, cover, and simmer gently for 10 minutes.

  2. For skate, simmer for 20 minutes or longer if needed.

  3. Serve the fish with the sauce poured over it.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, cooked gently in the sauce until it flakes.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce as it is stirred into the hot fat.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the fat.
Onion
Browns in the fat to add sweetness and savory depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour smooth before adding liquid. Flour dropped into hot fat clumps unless it is stirred well, and lumps are hard to remove later. Stirring it evenly coats each particle in fat so the liquid thickens the sauce smoothly once added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, vinegar, flour, butter, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, vinegar, flour, butter, 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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