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Brown Stew of Halibut

A stew of halibut simmered with stock, port wine, mushroom ketchup, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Brown Stew of Halibut

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut the fish into neat pieces.

  2. Roll the fish in flour, pepper, and salt.

Cook the stew

  1. Brown the fish quickly in butter.

  2. Pour over the stock and skim well when boiling.

  3. Simmer slowly for ten minutes.

  4. Add port wine and mushroom ketchup, then serve.

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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Mushroom + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Halibut
Forms the body of the stew as the main protein, cooked gently until just flaky.
Flour
Coats the fish so it browns evenly and lightly thickens the stock.
Butter
Fat that browns the fish quickly and adds rich flavour.
Brown stock
Forms the liquid base of the stew and carries the savoury flavour.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the finished sauce.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami depth to the stew.

The step that matters

Skimming the stock when boiling. Skimming removes foam and impurities that would otherwise cloud the broth and taint its flavour, giving a clearer, cleaner stew.

“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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