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Cold Boiled Rock Fish

Cold boiled rock fish is a chilled fish relish prepared by boiling a whole rock fish in spiced vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cold Boiled Rock Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickle

  1. In a kettle, combine vinegar, allspice, mace, and cloves.

  2. Boil the vinegar and spices together.

Season and pour

  1. Lay the fish in a deep dish.

  2. Season the fish with Cayenne pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Pour the boiling spiced vinegar over the fish.

Cool and serve

  1. Let it cool; it makes a nice relish for breakfast.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Rockfish (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish, flaking into firm pieces as it is cooked and steeped.
Vinegar
Acidity that firms the fish's surface and gives the relish its sharp, tangy flavour.
Whole allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the spiced vinegar.
Cloves
Contribute strong, warm aroma to the spiced vinegar.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the fish and draws out moisture, sharpening its flavour.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling spiced vinegar over the fish. The vinegar must be fully boiling so the hot liquid cooks and firms the fish's surface and the spices infuse evenly. Pouring over lukewarm vinegar leaves the fish raw and under-flavoured.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, vinegar, allspice, clove, pepper. 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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