Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
To Bake Mackerel
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Wipe the cleaned mackerel very dry.
Fill the insides with oyster forcemeat and sew them up.
Arrange the mackerel closely together in a buttered baking dish.
Lightly flour the mackerel and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Dot with bits of butter or pour melted butter over them.
Bake and serve
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.
Carefully lift the mackerel onto a hot dish and serve with melted butter.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,582 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Mackerel
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through in the oven to become flaky and tender.
- Oyster forcemeat
- Stuffing that adds moisture and savoury flavour to the inside of the fish as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat that keeps the fish moist and helps the surface brown in the oven.
- Flour
- Light dusting that helps the surface brown and gives a slightly crisp coating.
The step that matters
Wipe the mackerel very dry. Surface moisture would steam the skin instead of letting it brown, and excess water in the fish can dilute the butter and flour coating so it does not crisp well.
“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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