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Baked Herrings

Herring baked with spice powder, sea salt, cloves, pepper, onion, bay leaves, vinegar, and beer.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Baked Herrings

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Wash and drain the herring without wiping them.

  2. Season with spice powder, coarse sea salt, whole cloves, and black pepper.

  3. Layer the herring in a pan with chopped onion and bay leaves.

  4. Add vinegar and small beer to cover the herring.

Bake

  1. Cover the pan with paper and bake at 300°F (150°C).

  2. If desired, sprinkle saltpetre over the herring the night before to enhance color.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Vinegar + beertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Clove + beertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together284 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Herring
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flaky as it bakes.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the fish.
Small beer
Adds liquid and malty flavor that mingles with the vinegar in the pan.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and aroma as it softens and flavors the liquid.
Saltpetre
Helps the fish keep a pink color when used, as an optional addition.

The step that matters

Covering the pan with paper while baking. The cover traps moisture and gentle heat so the herring cooks through slowly and stays tender rather than drying out at the oven temperature.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, pepper, vinegar, beer. 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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