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Mock Anchovies

A preserved fish product made by layering sprats with salt, saltpetre, pepper, sugar, lemon peel, and bay leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,658 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Mock Anchovies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Draw the sprats at the gills without washing them.

  2. In a bowl, mix the salt, saltpetre, white pepper, lump sugar, lemon peel, and bay leaves.

Pack the jar

  1. Layer the mixture at the bottom of a stone jar, then add a layer of sprats.

  2. Continue layering until the jar is full.

  3. Seal the jar tightly and store it in a cold, dry place.

Cure

  1. Turn the jar upside down twice a week; they will be ready in about 3 months.

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. White pepper + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. White pepper + sugartop 42% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together812 recipes

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the fish and preserves it by inhibiting spoilage bacteria.
Saltpetre
Helps the fish keep its colour and adds a cured, preserving effect during long storage.
Lump sugar
Balances the salt with a mild sweetness and softens the harshness of the cure.

The step that matters

Layering the salt mixture with the sprats. Every fish needs salt contact to cure evenly. Gaps in the layers can let spoilage start, so each layer should be spread well and the jar packed full.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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