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Salt Mackerel

Salted mackerel simmered in vinegar and water, then finished with buttered cream and lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salt Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. To freshen the mackerel, soak it skin side up in a stone crock of water overnight, changing the water before bed.

  2. In the morning, rinse the mackerel in clear water.

Cook and serve

  1. In a frying pan, boil the mackerel in a mixture of vinegar and water for about 5 minutes.

  2. Carefully transfer the mackerel to a platter.

  3. Heat the cream or milk with butter in a basin and pour it over the mackerel.

  4. Serve with slices of lemon.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Vinegar + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,064 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt mackerel
The main fish; soaking draws out excess salt so it can be eaten.
Vinegar
Its acidity gently firms the fish and adds a sharp, bright flavour.
Cream or rich milk
Fat and milk solids add richness and mellow the salty, sharp flavour.
Butter
Adds fat and a rich, savoury flavour to the warm cream sauce.

The step that matters

Changing the soaking water. Salt mackerel is very salty, and soaking it in fresh water overnight draws salt out of the flesh. Changing the water keeps the salt gradient steep so the fish keeps freshening; using stale water would leave it too salty.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cream, 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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