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To Pickle Mackerel

A method of pickling mackerel by frying, seasoning, and preserving in vinegar and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Pickle Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean and cut each mackerel into four or five pieces.

  2. Pound and mix together black pepper, nutmegs, mace, and coarse sea salt, then rub the spice mixture thoroughly onto each piece of fish.

Fry and pickle

  1. Fry the fish in oil until brown, then let them cool.

  2. Place the cooled fish into a jar, fill it with vinegar, and pour oil on top.

  3. Seal the jar tightly.

Store

  1. The pickled mackerel will keep for up to a year if not opened too soon.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Mace + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Mackerel
Forms the body of the dish; its oily flesh holds up to frying and pickling.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the fish and gives the pickled sharp flavour.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, aromatic heat that seasons the fish through the spice rub.
Nutmeg
Contributes warm, aromatic flavour to the spice rub.
Mace
Contributes a delicate, warm aroma to the spice rub.

The step that matters

Frying the fish until brown, then cooling it fully. Browning builds flavour and firms the flesh, and the fish must be cool before it goes into the jar with vinegar so it stays firm and the jar is not left warm, which encourages spoilage.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, nutmeg, vinegar):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, nutmeg, vinegar. 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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