Name: Herrings a LA Russe
Ingredients: salted herring fillets; cold boiled potatoes; oil; vinegar; chopped chervil; chopped fennel; chopped tarragon; chopped shallots

Why it works: Chervil and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 795 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

Cut the salted herring fillets into thin slices.

Assemble and dress

Arrange the sliced fillets on a serving dish, alternating with rows of sliced cold boiled potatoes.
Drizzle with oil and vinegar.
Top with chopped chervil, fennel, tarragon, and shallots.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Chervil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together795 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Fennel + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together132 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Chervil + shallottop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together266 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Tarragon + shallottop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together492 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Chervil + fenneltop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together67 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Salted herring fillets: Provide the main fish flavour and salty, savoury character of the salad.
Cold boiled potatoes: Add bulk and a soft, mild starchy texture that balances the fish.
Oil: Adds richness and moisture and carries the herbs' aroma across the dish.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and cuts the richness of the fish and oil.
Chopped shallots: Add a mild sharp onion flavour and some aromatic bite.

Flavor stand-ins for the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, chervil, fennel, tarragon, shallot):

Chivebetter flavor fit
Mustardbetter flavor fit
Lettucebetter flavor fit
Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, chervil, fennel, tarragon, shallot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.