Why it works: Vinegar and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Pickled Herring
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the herring
Clean and soak the salt herring overnight in cold water.
Drain the herring.
Pickle
Cover the herring with water, vinegar, lemon slices, sugar, sliced onions, pickling spices, bay leaf, and grated apple.
Allow the herring to remain in this pickle overnight before using.
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.
-
Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
-
Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Vinegar + appletop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,884 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
-
Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and apple barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Salt herring
- Is the main fish, whose soaking removes excess salt before pickling.
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the pickle.
- Sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
- Onions
- Add mild sweetness and aroma that soften as the herring pickles.
- Apple
- Adds natural sweetness and body to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Soaking the salt herring overnight. Salt herring is very salty, so soaking it in cold water draws out excess salt. Skipping or shortening the soak leaves the fish too salty once it is pickled.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, lemon, sugar, apple):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Cucumberfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, lemon, sugar, apple. 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
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Apple Soup33 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.