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Ti-ie Breakfast Book

A pickled fish relish made by spicing, frying, and preserving in vinegar and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ti-ie Breakfast Book

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spice mixture

  1. Mix the fine white pepper, cayenne, nutmegs, salt, saltpetre, minced garlic, mace, and pimienta in a bowl.

  2. Make holes in the fish with your finger and fill them with the spice mixture.

  3. Rub the mixture on the outside of the fish.

Fry and pot

  1. Heat olive oil in a frying pan and fry the fish until golden brown.

  2. Place the fried fish in pots.

  3. Cover the fish with strong vinegar.

  4. Fill the pots with fresh oil.

  5. Seal the pots with skins.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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, absorbing the spices and vinegar as it preserves.
Saltpetre
Cures the fish and helps keep its colour and texture firm during storage.
Salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the fish, helping to preserve it.
Strong vinegar
Acidifies the fish, adding sharpness and helping to preserve it in the pots.
Fine white pepper
Adds sharp, aromatic heat that flavours the fish throughout.

The step that matters

Frying until golden brown. Frying sears the outside and sets the surface before potting. Under-frying leaves the fish soft and less stable, while over-browning can make it bitter and dry.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, nutmeg, clove, garlic, mace, olive):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, nutmeg, clove, garlic, mace, olive. 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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