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Soused Fish

Soused fish is fish preserved in a vinegar and herb stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Fennel and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 723 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Soused Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the neatest pieces of fish in a deep dish.

Pickle

  1. Boil the fish stock with an equal quantity of vinegar, along with the herbs, lemon, and seasoning.

  2. Pour the mixture over the fish.

  3. Gently turn the fish from time to time to ensure the seasoning saturates it.

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. Fennel + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together723 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Fennel + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together350 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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, absorbing the flavour of the pickling liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the fish.
Fish stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the herbs and seasoning into the fish.

The step that matters

Turning the fish in the pickling liquid. Fish at the top of the dish sits out of the liquid and seasons unevenly. Gently turning the pieces from time to time lets every part soak up the acid and seasoning so the flavour is consistent throughout.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, vinegar, fennel, lemon. 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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