Skip to main content
Main

Perche Au Court-Bouillon

A perch simmered in a court-bouillon of white wine, water, and julienned vegetables, served with anchovy butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Perche Au Court-Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Clean and scale the perch, removing the gills.

Poach and serve

  1. In a pot, combine water, white wine, and julienned vegetables.

  2. Bring to a boil, then add the perch.

  3. Simmer until the fish is cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.

  4. Serve the perch with anchovy butter on top.

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. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. White wine + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,535 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Perch
Provides the delicate white flesh that is gently cooked by the poaching liquid.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic flavour to the court-bouillon broth.
Julienned vegetables
Flavour the broth as they simmer, adding sweetness and aroma to the liquid.
Anchovy butter
Adds salty, savoury richness that melts over the warm fish.

The step that matters

Simmer until the fish is cooked through. Perch flesh is delicate and turns dry and tough when overcooked. Simmering gently, below a rolling boil, lets the proteins set evenly while keeping the fish moist.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, celery, onion, anchovy, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, celery, onion, anchovy, butter. 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipesCelery CroquettesCelery Croquettes16 recipes