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Baked Fresh Herrings

Baked fresh herrings seasoned with pepper, salt, mustard, allspice, and vinegar, then baked with bay leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,928 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Baked Fresh Herrings

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the herrings

  1. Scrape and wash the herrings well.

  2. Cut off the heads and split the bodies in half, removing the bones.

  3. Rub each half with pepper, salt, mustard, and allspice.

  4. Roll each half separately, leaving the tail outwards.

Pack and bake

  1. Pack the rolled herrings in a jar.

  2. Pound the soft roes and mix with vinegar and water.

  3. Pour the mixture over the herrings.

  4. Place bay leaves on top.

  5. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for about 1 hour.

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. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Herrings
Form the dish's main body, becoming tender and flaky as they bake slowly.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the fish.
Soft roes (in the method)
Pounded into the liquid to add richness and body to the sauce.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice that flavours the fish.

The step that matters

Pack and pour before baking. The rolled herrings must be packed tightly so they hold their shape, and the vinegar mixture must cover them. The acid in the liquid firms and flavours the fish as it bakes slowly at low heat.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

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