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Fish Stock

A clear broth made by simmering white fish bones, skin, onion, herbs, lemon juice, peppercorns, cloves, and salt in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,150 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Fish Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine fish bones, skin, cold water, onion, herbs, lemon juice, peppercorns, cloves, and salt in a pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil slowly, skimming off any foam that forms on the surface.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for one hour.

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. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

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

  4. Fish + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,924 recipes

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

  5. Onion + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

White fish bones and skin
Provide the main body and gelatin that give the stock its flavor and mouthfeel.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps keep the stock clean-tasting.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam. Foam is made of coagulated proteins and impurities that can cloud the stock and add bitter or off flavors. Removing it as the liquid heats keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, lemon, clove. 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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