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Potted Mackerel

A preserved mackerel dish made by layering fish with spices, vinegar, and rye meal, then baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

Potted Mackerel

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

  1. Layer small fish in a stone jar.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt, whole black peppercorns, cloves, and allspice.

  3. Repeat layering until the jar is nearly full.

  4. Cover with vinegar.

Bake and serve

  1. Seal the jar with a paper and a paste made of rye meal.

  2. Bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) for four hours.

  3. Remove the crust without letting it fall into the fish.

  4. Keep the jar covered tightly.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + ryetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + ryetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together32 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Small fish
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flaky during slow baking.
Vinegar
Acidity that helps preserve the fish and sharpens its flavour.
Rye meal
Forms a sealing paste that traps moisture and heat inside the jar during baking.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the fish, aiding preservation.

The step that matters

Remove the crust without letting it fall into the fish. The hardened rye crust must be lifted off carefully so loose crumbs do not drop into the fish and contaminate the jar. Keeping the seal intact until then helps the contents stay moist and evenly cooked.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Allspicethe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, clove, vinegar, rye. 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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