Skip to main content
Main

Pickled or Spiced Fish

A fish preserved by covering it in hot spiced vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled or Spiced Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove all skin and bones from the fish.

  2. Place the fish in a deep dish.

Pickle and serve

  1. Add enough hot spiced vinegar to just cover the fish.

  2. Allow to cool 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Fish + clovetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together615 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main flesh, which the vinegar firms and seasons as it soaks.
Spiced vinegar
Its acidity firms the fish and sharpens its flavour, and it carries the spices into the flesh.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice to the vinegar that flavours the fish.
Allspice
Adds a warm, peppery aroma to the vinegar that flavours the fish.

The step that matters

Allow to cool before serving. The fish needs time to sit in the vinegar as it cools, so the acid and spices can penetrate the flesh. Serving it while hot leaves the flavour uneven and the texture soft.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, vinegar, allspice. 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.

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipesBroiled FishBroiled Fish68 recipes