Skip to main content
Soup

Water Souchy

A fish soup simmered with parsley roots, tender parsley stems, and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: White pepper and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,451 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Water Souchy

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the fish

  1. In a pot, add enough water to cover the fish and bring it to a simmer.

  2. Add white pepper, parsley roots, and tender parsley stems cut into straw-sized pieces.

  3. Simmer until the parsley roots are tender.

  4. Carefully add the fish, ensuring it is cleaned of any brown skin.

  5. Cook the fish gently for a few minutes until done.

Serve

  1. Just before serving, sprinkle minced parsley on top.

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. White pepper + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,341 recipes

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

  3. Fish + white peppertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together191 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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, becoming tender and flaky as it gently cooks in the liquid.
Parsley roots
Infuse the cooking water with a earthy, aromatic flavour that seasons the broth.
Tender parsley stems
Add fresh herbal aroma to the poaching liquid as they simmer.
White pepper
Adds gentle, mild heat and aroma to the poaching liquid without dark specks.

The step that matters

Cook the fish gently. Holding the water at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil keeps the fish tender and prevents it from breaking apart and turning dry or rubbery as the proteins set.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, parsley. 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.

More water soucy recipes

Fish Soup 6Fish Stew 6 See all 9 →

You might also like

Indian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipesCream of Asparagus SoupCream of Asparagus Soup42 recipes