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Red Herrings

A dish of cleaned, split herrings coated in egg, parsley, and breadcrumbs, then broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Red Herrings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the herrings

  1. Wipe the red herrings clean without washing them.

  2. Cut off the head and tail, then split the back open.

  3. Alternatively, soak the cleaned and split herrings in lukewarm water for 2 hours. Drain and wipe them dry.

Grill and serve

  1. Place them on a greased gridiron over a slow fire.

  2. Add a little butter or sweet oil and let it absorb.

  3. Turn the herrings over and repeat for the other side.

  4. Broil lightly and serve with oil sauce and mustard.

Bake with crumbs

  1. Mix egg yolks with chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and melted butter.

  2. Spread the mixture around each herring, then roll them in fine bread crumbs.

  3. Place on a gridiron over a slow fire and broil lightly 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Red herrings
The main fish, whose oily flesh stays moist and flavourful over the fire.
Butter or sweet oil
Adds fat that keeps the surface moist and helps it brown lightly.
Egg yolks
Bind the parsley and seasonings into a coating that holds to the fish.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns on the gridiron.

The step that matters

Broil lightly over a slow fire. A slow fire heats the fish through gently while the fat keeps the surface from drying out. Too hot a fire would scorch the crumbs or outside before the flesh is cooked.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sauce, egg, parsley, pepper, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sauce, egg, parsley, pepper, bread. 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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