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Fresh Herrings a LA Maitre D'hotel

A dish of fresh herrings served with butter, parsley, pepper, salt, and vinegar or lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Fresh Herrings a LA Maitre D'hotel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the herrings down the back and wash them.

  2. Broil the herrings until cooked.

Dress and serve

  1. Place the herrings on a plate with butter, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  2. Warm the dish until the butter melts.

  3. Add a spoonful of vinegar or the juice of a lemon, and serve.

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. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh herrings
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender, flaky texture under the broiler.
Butter
Melts over the hot fish to add richness and moisture.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma that brightens the rich butter.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that cuts the richness of the butter and sharpens the flavour.

The step that matters

Broil the herrings until cooked. Fish cooks quickly and becomes dry or tough if overcooked. Stopping once the flesh turns opaque and flakes easily keeps it moist and tender.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, vinegar. 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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