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To Pickle Smelt

A method of pickling smelts in red wine with spices and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Pickle Smelt

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the smelts

  1. Clean and gut the smelts.

  2. Layer the smelts in a jar, sprinkling seasoning and bay leaves between each layer.

Add the wine

  1. Boil red wine.

  2. Pour the boiled wine over the smelts until they are covered.

Seal and cool

  1. Cover the jar with a plate.

  2. Let the jar cool.

  3. Once cool, tie the jar closed.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Mace + red winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together381 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Smelts
The small fish being preserved, which the salt, seasonings and wine cure and flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the fish and helps preserve it.
Saltpetre
Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the fish and keep its colour.
Red wine
Covers the fish in liquid and adds flavour to the preserved smelts.
Nutmeg
Adds warm aromatic flavour that complements the fish.
Bay leaves
Add a gentle herbal aroma as they sit between the layers.

The step that matters

Pour the boiled wine until the smelts are fully covered. Fish left exposed to air can spoil and dry out. Keeping every smelt submerged in liquid limits contact with air and helps the jar keep better.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (smelt, pepper, nutmeg, red wine):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against smelt, pepper, nutmeg, red wine. 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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