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Smoked Herrings Bruxelloise

Smoked herrings topped with butter, herbs, mushrooms, and bread crumbs, then broiled and served with lemon slices and watercress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Chive and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 450 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Smoked Herrings Bruxelloise

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the herrings

  1. Skin, split, and bone the smoked herrings.

  2. Place the fillets in a well-buttered saucepan.

Season and top

  1. Sprinkle with chopped mushrooms, parsley, chives, savory herbs, and shallots.

  2. Season with white pepper and cayenne.

  3. Dot with small pieces of butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until done.

  2. Serve neatly on a dish, garnished with lemon slices and watercress.

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. Chive + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Smoked herrings
Provide the main fish flesh and smoky flavour that the dish is built around.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the topping brown and the fish stay tender.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns under the broiler and absorbs butter.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savoury earthiness that softens and blends with the fish during cooking.
Shallots
Contribute a mild, sweet onion aroma that mellows as it cooks.

The step that matters

Broil in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until done.. Broiling browns the crumb topping quickly while the delicate fish heats through. Overcooking dries the fillets and toughens the flesh, so watch closely and stop once the topping is golden and the fish is hot.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, mushroom, parsley, chive, shallot, bread, lemon):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mushroom, parsley, chive, shallot, bread, lemon. 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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