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Fresh Herrings

Fresh herrings are grilled and served with a mustard‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fresh Herrings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off the heads and clean the herrings thoroughly.

Cook the herrings

  1. Place them on a grill over a bright fire and broil for 10 to 12 minutes, depending on size.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a bowl, knead the baked flour and mustard powder with the butter.

  2. Stir in the boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Add the vinegar and serve the sauce with the hot herrings.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh herrings
Provide the main fish, which cooks through over direct heat to become flaky and tender.
Baked flour
Thickens the butter and water into a smooth, cohesive sauce as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a silky, mellow texture.
Mustard powder
Contributes sharp, pungent flavour that defines the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances the mustard.

The step that matters

Stir in the boiling water and boil for 5 minutes. Flour must be heated in liquid long enough to swell its starch and thicken the sauce; too brief a boil leaves a thin, floury taste. Adding the vinegar after cooking keeps its sharp flavour bright.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, vinegar. 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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