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Fish Baked in Vinegar

A dish of herring baked in vinegar with peppercorns, mace, shallot, bay leaf, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,374 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fish Baked in Vinegar

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash and clean the fish thoroughly in cold water.

  2. Cut the fish into thick pieces.

Pack the jar

  1. Lay the pieces close together in a stone jar with the peppercorns and salt.

  2. Add the blade of mace and bay leaf.

  3. Peel the shallot.

  4. Add the shallot to the fish, adjusting the amount to taste.

  5. Pour the vinegar into the jar.

  6. Tightly cover the jar with brown paper secured with string.

Bake

  1. Place the jar in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) to bake for two hours, or leave it in a baker's oven overnight.

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. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mace + shallottop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  3. Mace + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Herrings
Provide the main fish, which becomes firm and tender as it cooks slowly in the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that flavours the fish and helps preserve it during the long, slow cook.
Shallot
Adds a mild, sharp onion aroma that mellows and infuses the fish during baking.

The step that matters

Covering the jar tightly. A tight cover with brown paper and string traps moisture and keeps the vinegar and spices concentrated, so the fish cooks gently in its own liquid instead of drying out in the slow oven.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, vinegar. 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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