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Soup

Water Souchet

A fish broth made with fish bones, vegetables, peppercorns, herbs, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Water Souchet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Choose small fish of different kinds and fillet them, reserving half for another dish.

  2. Wash the fish bones in cold water and remove any black substance.

Make the broth

  1. In a pot, combine the bones with 2 quarts of cold water and 1 teaspoon of salt.

  2. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that forms.

  3. Add the peppercorns, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, and herbs whole.

  4. Boil for one hour, then strain through a fine sieve.

  5. Wash the boiled vegetables, slice them, and return to the saucepan.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish bones
Provide the main body of flavour and gelatin for the broth.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the broth.
Carrot
Adds mild sweetness and body to the broth.
Peppercorns
Contribute a mild, warm aroma and spice to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum after boiling. Scum that forms as the liquid comes to a boil consists of coagulated proteins and impurities. Skimming it early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy and murky.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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