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Baked Herrings

A baked dish of whole herrings seasoned with cloves, allspice, mace, vinegar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Herrings

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 the fish

  1. Remove the flesh from the backbone of the herrings and discard the bones.

  2. Sprinkle the insides of the fish with a little salt and roll them tightly from the tail end upwards.

  3. Pack the rolled fish closely in a pudding dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Add the cloves, allspice, mace, vinegar, and enough water to cover the fish, using only one-third vinegar.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 40 minutes.

  3. Serve cold.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 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

Herrings
Provide the main flesh, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the cooked fish.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour to the fish and cooking liquid.
Allspice berries
Add warm, aromatic spice flavour that complements the fish.

The step that matters

Packing the rolled fish closely. Close packing keeps the rolls upright and in contact so they cook evenly and stay in shape. Fish cooked in a loosely packed dish can unroll or cook unevenly, and the liquid is more likely to be uneven in flavour.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, allspice, pepper, vinegar, fish. 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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