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Potted Fish

A fish cut into quarters, seasoned with salt and spices, baked in an earthen pot with cider vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Potted Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the fish into four equal parts.

  2. Rub a little coarse sea salt on the end of each piece.

Pot and bake

  1. Place the pieces in an earthen pot.

  2. Add whole spices and enough cider vinegar to cover the fish when the pot is nearly full.

  3. Tie on a paper cover and place an earthen cover on top to keep in the steam.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for three hours.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  3. Fish + cidertop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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, cooked slowly until tender in the sealed pot.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the finished fish its tangy flavour and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Covering the fish with vinegar and sealing the pot. If the fish is not fully covered by the vinegar, the exposed pieces can dry out or spoil. The paper and earthen covers trap steam so the fish cooks gently in its own moisture for the full three hours.

“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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