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Mackerel, with Fine Herbs

A baked mackerel fillet topped with a mixture of fine herbs, mushrooms, shallots, parsley, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mackerel, with Fine Herbs

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Grease a baking tin with butter.

  3. Fry the minced herbs, mushrooms, shallots, and parsley in a pan until softened. Season with pepper and salt.

  4. Spread the herb mixture on the bottom of the baking tin.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the mackerel on top of the herbs and cover with bread crumbs.

  2. Moisten the crumbs with gravy or white wine and dot with pieces of butter.

  3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until browned.

  4. Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice on top.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Mackerel
Forms the main protein, cooking gently on the herb bed until it turns flaky.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumbs brown in the oven.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavor to the herb base as they soften.
Shallots
Add mild sweetness and aroma when softened in the pan.
Bread crumbs
Form a crust that browns and helps hold moisture in the fish.

The step that matters

Baking time and browning. Mackerel is delicate and cooks quickly at low heat. Checking at the short end of the 15 to 20 minute range helps keep the fish moist while the crumbs brown.

“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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