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Salt Mackerel

Salted mackerel cooked in a milk and flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salt Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean the mackerel by scraping off any rusty parts and the thin black membrane inside.

  2. Soak the fish overnight in plenty of cold water, skin side up.

  3. In the morning, place the fish in a frying pan, cover with fresh water, and heat slowly to boiling.

  4. Drain the water, add just enough fresh water to cook the fish, and boil slowly until tender.

  5. Carefully lift the mackerel out and keep it warm in the oven.

Make the gravy

  1. Drain the remaining water in the frying pan until half a pint is left.

  2. Pour in 1 pint of milk and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir 3 tablespoons of flour mixed with 2 tablespoons of butter into the boiling liquid, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  4. Let the gravy boil slowly for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring constantly until smooth.

  5. Pour the gravy over the mackerel and serve.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Flour and butter 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, becoming tender when simmered gently in water.
Flour
Thickens the milk liquid into a smooth gravy as it boils.
Milk
Forms the base of the creamy gravy, adding body and mild sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and smoothness to the gravy, carrying flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring the gravy as it thickens. Flour added to hot liquid can clump unless it is mixed in well and stirred constantly. Stirring spreads the starch evenly so it swells into a smooth sauce rather than lumps.

“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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