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Potted Fish

A fish dish preserved in vinegar with cloves, allspice, peppercorns, cayenne, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potted Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Clean the fish, skin it, remove the larger bones, and cut it into pieces.

  2. Mix together the cloves, allspice, peppercorns, cayenne, and coarse sea salt.

Pack and bake

  1. In a small stone jar, pack the fish in layers, sprinkling the spice mixture between the layers.

  2. Add enough vinegar to cover the fish, tie a thick paper over the top, and bake for 5 to 6 hours at 350°F (175°C).

Store and serve

  1. Store in a cool place under the vinegar; it can be eaten cold or hot.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Fish + clovetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together615 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the body of the dish, becoming tender as it bakes slowly in the vinegar.
Vinegar
Covers the fish and adds acidity that preserves it and sharpens the flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the fish and helps draw out moisture and preserve it.
Peppercorns
Adds sharp, pungent aroma and warmth to the spice blend.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic sweetness to the spice blend.

The step that matters

Covering the fish fully with vinegar before baking. Any fish left above the liquid can dry out or spoil during the long slow bake and storage. Keeping every piece submerged in vinegar helps the acid preserve it and keeps the texture moist and even.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, allspice, 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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