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Root Gravy for Ragotits of Fish

A savory root gravy made with carrots, celery, onions, and fish stock, seasoned with herbs and spices, served with fish ragout.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 ↓

Root Gravy for Ragotits of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the carrots, celery, eschalots, garlic, and onions.

Make the gravy

  1. In a stewpan, melt 2 ounces of butter and fry the vegetables until they glaze.

  2. Add 2 ounces of butter rolled in flour, salt, cayenne, mace, and cloves.

  3. Moisten with fish stock or cold water, and add parsley, thyme, basil, and mushrooms if using.

  4. Stew for 15 minutes, then add white wine and simmer for 5 minutes.

  5. Strain the gravy before serving.

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. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the gravy and, with flour, thickens it into a smooth base.
Flour
Thickens the gravy when rolled into the butter and stirred into the liquid.
Onions
Build the aromatic flavour base as they soften and sweeten in the butter.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the stock as they cook down.
Celery
Contributes savoury, aromatic flavour to the base of the gravy.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma, brightening the gravy during its final simmer.

The step that matters

Glazing the vegetables in butter. Frying the vegetables until they glaze browns their sugars and builds flavour. If they are left pale or steamed, the gravy tastes flat. Stir often to avoid scorching.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, garlic, onion, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, garlic, onion, butter, flour, 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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