Name: Herring
Ingredients: 6 herring; 1 tablespoon chopped suet; 2 tablespoons bread crumbs; 2 teaspoons chopped parsley; 1 tablespoon milk; ½ teaspoon mixed herbs; salt; pepper

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Herring

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

Wash, dry, and slit the herrings.
Remove the heads and backbones.
Season with salt and pepper.
Spread a little stuffing made from the mixed ingredients on each fish and roll them up.
Place the rolled herrings in a pie dish.

Bake

Brush with egg or milk and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Add a few bits of dripping.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 25 to 30 minutes.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,588 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Herring: The main fish, rolled around the stuffing so it cooks through as a neat parcel.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture in the stuffing and form a crisp, browned topping in the oven.
Suet: Adds fat to the stuffing, keeping it moist and rich as it cooks.
Milk: Moistens the stuffing and brushed on top to help the crumbs brown.