Skip to main content
Main

Caveach Fish

Fish preserved in spiced vinegar and oil, then sealed in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Caveach Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean the fish and cut into slices.

  2. Season each slice with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  3. Fry the slices in hot butter or lard until lightly browned.

  4. Let the fish cool, then place in jars.

Pickle and seal

  1. Boil the spices in vinegar with shallots, cloves, mace, black peppercorns, and bay leaves.

  2. Once cooled, nearly fill the jars with the spiced vinegar.

  3. Top with a little salad oil and seal the jars tightly.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Nutmeg + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the fish and gives it its sharp, tangy flavour.
Butter or lard
Fat that browns the fish surface and adds richness and flavour.
Large fish
Main protein; firm slices hold their shape through frying and pickling.
Salad oil
Forms a layer on top of the vinegar that helps seal out air.

The step that matters

Let the fish cool before placing in jars and adding vinegar. Hot fish and hot vinegar can soften the flesh and leave steam in the jars, so cooling first helps keep the texture firm and the seal reliable.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, nutmeg, butter, vinegar, shallot, clove. 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.

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipesBroiled FishBroiled Fish68 recipes