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Salt Mackerel Cooked in Milk

Salted mackerel is simmered in milk, served with butter and potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salt Mackerel Cooked in Milk

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

  1. Select a salt mackerel that is not too fat with thick flesh.

  2. Soak the mackerel, skin side up, in cold water overnight.

  3. Drain the mackerel and place it in a granite dripping pan, skin side down.

  4. Cover the mackerel with fresh sweet milk.

Cook

  1. Simmer very slowly on the back of the range or in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve

  1. Drain the milk from the mackerel and place it on a hot serving platter.

  2. Spread the mackerel with soft butter and serve with a small quantity of the strained milk or a thin white sauce, if desired.

  3. Serve with baked, boiled, or steamed potatoes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salt mackerel
Provides the main flesh and savory flavor, which the soaking tempers by drawing out excess salt.
Fresh sweet milk
Gently poaches the fish and mellows its saltiness while keeping the flesh moist.
Soft butter
Adds richness and fat to the finished fish at serving.

The step that matters

Simmering very slowly. Gentle heat keeps the milk from boiling and curdling, and lets the mackerel cook through while staying tender and moist rather than dry or tough.

“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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