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To Pot Herrings

A method of preserving herrings by seasoning, baking, and covering with clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

To Pot Herrings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the herrings

  1. Choose 1 to 2 dozen large, fresh herrings.

  2. Mix 2 ounces of coarse sea salt, 1 ounce of saltpetre, and 2 ounces of allspice into a fine powder.

  3. Rub the spice mixture into the herrings and let them drain for 8 hours.

  4. Wipe off the spice and place the herrings on a buttered pan.

Bake

  1. Season with nutmeg, mace, pepper, salt, and ground clove, using 1 ounce of each except for the clove.

  2. Add 2 to 3 bay leaves, cover with butter, and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 3 hours.

Pot and rest

  1. Once cool, drain the liquid and pack the fish into pots.

  2. Cover the fish with melted clarified butter to a depth of ½ inch, ensuring it is not hot.

  3. Let the fish sit for 2 days before eating.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Herrings
Form the main body of the dish, providing the flesh that is cured, baked and potted.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the fish and seasons it during the initial cure.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the fish and keeps its colour firm during curing.
Clarified butter
Seals the packed fish from air, adding richness and helping it keep.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour that penetrates the fish during curing.

The step that matters

Covering the fish with clarified butter while it is not hot. If the butter is too hot it can cook the fish further and make it greasy or uneven. Letting it cool slightly keeps the texture firm and lets the butter set into a protective seal.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, nutmeg, pepper, clove, butter. 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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