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A Matelote of Carp, Eel, and Other Fish

A stew of carp, eel, and other freshwater fish cooked with butter, flour, onions, wine, water, mushrooms, herbs, and toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

A Matelote of Carp, Eel, and Other Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale and clean the fish, then cut them into equal pieces.

Make the stew

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and add some flour and the small onions.

  2. When the onions are half done, add the fish, red wine, water, mushrooms, herbs, salt, and pepper.

  3. Stew the mixture on high heat for one hour.

  4. Before serving, add the toasted bread snippets to the sauce.

Serve

  1. Arrange the fish in a pyramid on a serving dish, placing the heads in the middle and surrounding with mushrooms and onions.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  3. Red wine + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together720 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh-water fish
Forms the main body of the dish and releases flavour into the stewing liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when melted into the stewpan.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce as it stews.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the sauce as it reduces.
Onions
Soften during stewing, adding sweetness that balances the wine.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy aroma and moisture to the stewed sauce.

The step that matters

Stewing the fish on high heat. Fish is delicate and can break apart or turn tough when boiled hard for a long time. Gentle, steady simmering keeps the pieces intact and the flesh tender, while the sauce thickens slowly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, flour, red wine, mushroom, pepper, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, flour, red wine, mushroom, pepper, bread. 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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