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Spiced Mackerel

Mackerel cured in vinegar, spices, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spiced Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean the mackerel.

  2. Soak it overnight in cold water, inside down.

  3. Drain and boil the mackerel slowly in fresh water until tender.

  4. Lift the fish out, drain well, and cut it into four pieces.

Make the pickle

  1. In a pot, combine vinegar, bay leaves, prepared spices, mustard, salt, pepper, and onion.

  2. Heat the mixture, cover tightly, and let it steep for one hour.

  3. Strain the liquid and pour it boiling hot over the fish, covering it while the vinegar steams.

  4. Let the fish sit for a day 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. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 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
Is the main fish, softened by soaking and then boiling until tender.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that sharpens the flavour and preserves the fish in the pickle.
Bay leaves
Adds a subtle aromatic, herbal note to the pickling liquid.
Whole mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling pickle over the fish and covering it. The hot, acidic liquid must reach the fish while still boiling so the vinegar penetrates and the fish absorbs flavour. Covering traps the steam so the vinegar stays in contact with the fish instead of escaping.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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