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The Plain Red Herring

A grilled whole red herring seasoned with flour, butter, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The Plain Red Herring

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Choose a firm, fresh herring and soak it in lukewarm water for a few hours if too salty.

  2. Wipe the herring dry with a cloth and make a few incisions in the back.

  3. Dust the herring lightly with flour.

Grill and finish

  1. Place the herring on a gridiron about 6 inches over a clear fire.

  2. Cook for about 5 minutes, turning often until done.

  3. Mix butter with a little mustard and either place it inside the herring or rub it over the 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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + mustardtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Red herring
Firm, fresh flesh holds its shape on the grill and gives the dish its main flavour.
Flour
A light dusting helps the surface brown and take on colour during grilling.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the fish moist and carries flavour over the heat.

The step that matters

Turning the herring on the gridiron. Turning often over a clear fire keeps the skin from scorching before the thick flesh cooks through. Fish proteins set as they heat, so steady, frequent turning gives even cooking.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, 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.

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