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Boiled Salt Mackerel

A boiled mackerel served with melted butter and sliced lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Boiled Salt Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Wash the mackerel in several waters and soak it in cold water overnight.

  2. In the morning, wash the mackerel several times.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the mackerel in a pot with cold water and add 1 tablespoon of vinegar.

  2. Boil for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Carefully remove the mackerel and place it on a hot platter.

  4. Pour melted butter over the mackerel and serve with sliced lemon.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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, providing the flesh that cooks into flakes.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the cooked fish and softening its lean flavour.
Vinegar
Adds a little acidity that brightens the mild flavour of the fish.

The step that matters

Boiling the mackerel. Boiling in gently simmering water cooks the fish through while keeping it moist. Overboiling toughens the proteins and breaks the fish apart, so timing matters.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, butter. 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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