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Salt Mackerel with Cream Sauce

A salted mackerel fillet served with a creamy sauce made from milk, butter, cornstarch, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Salt Mackerel with Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the mackerel overnight in lukewarm water, changing it in the morning for ice‑cold water.

  2. Rub off all the salt and wipe the fish dry.

  3. Grease a grill with butter and rub the fish on both sides with melted butter.

Cook the fish

  1. Broil the fish quickly over a clear fire, turning gently to avoid breaking it.

  2. Place the fish on a hot water dish and cover it while preparing the sauce.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the milk until scalding.

  2. Stir in the cornstarch mixed with a little water until thickened.

  3. Add the butter, pepper, salt, and chopped parsley to the thickened milk.

  4. Beat the egg lightly and gradually pour the sauce over it.

  5. Return the mixture to the heat and stir for one minute.

  6. Pour the sauce over the fish and let it stand covered over hot water before serving.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salt mackerel
The main fish, whose salt-curing is removed by soaking before cooking.
Egg
Thickens the sauce gently when stirred in with warm milk, adding richness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it heats.
Milk
Forms the base of the cream sauce, giving it a mild, creamy body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the fish surface and the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg to the sauce. Pouring hot sauce into a beaten egg too quickly can scramble it. Adding the sauce gradually tempers the egg so it thickens smoothly, and returning the mixture to gentle heat sets it without curdling.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, pepper, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, pepper, egg. 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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