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Soused Mackerel

A mackerel dish prepared by boiling, then braising in a vinegar and spice mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Soused Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the mackerel

  1. Boil the cleaned mackerel in salted water for a few minutes until tender.

  2. Remove the mackerel and reserve half the boiling water.

Pickle and serve

  1. Add an equal amount of vinegar, whole pepper, cloves, and a couple of blades of mace to the reserved water.

  2. Pour the mixture over the hot mackerel.

  3. Let it sit for twelve hours before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

Fresh mackerel
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming firm and flaky when cooked.
Good vinegar
Provides the acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the fish in the sauce.
Whole pepper
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note that infuses into the cooking liquid.
Cloves
Adds a strong aromatic warmth that flavours the pickling liquid.
Mace
Adds a delicate, nutmeg-like aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Let it sit for twelve hours before serving. The hot mackerel needs time in the vinegar mixture so the acid and spices can penetrate the flesh and flavour it evenly; serving early leaves it under-seasoned.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

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