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Herrings on Toast

A dish of boiled herrings served hot on toast with lemon juice and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Herrings on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the herrings down the backs and remove the bones.

  2. Soak the fish in spiced vinegar for 10 minutes.

  3. Dust the white side with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Dip each fish into heated fat and broil over a clear fire.

  2. Serve the fish on toast, adding lemon juice and chopped parsley on top.

  3. Ensure the fish is served very 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Bloaters
The main protein, with oily flesh that stays moist and rich under high heat.
Spiced vinegar
Acidity that softens and flavours the fish during the soak.
Lemon juice
Adds bright acidity that balances the rich, oily fish.
Toast
Gives a crisp, absorbent base that holds the fish and its juices.

The step that matters

Dip each fish into heated fat and broil over a clear fire. The fat must be hot enough to sear the surface quickly, so the fish browns and crisps before the flesh dries out. Too little heat lets it steam and turn soggy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Cherryfits less well
  4. Mangofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, parsley. 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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