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Mackerel, Baked

Baked mackerel stuffed with breadcrumbs, suet, parsley, herbs, chives, pepper, and salt, then coated in flour and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Mackerel, Baked

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix breadcrumbs, beef suet, parsley, savory herbs, chives, pepper, and salt. Bind the mixture with the beaten egg.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the mackerel with the forcemeat and sew the sides together with strong thread.

  2. Place the mackerel in a baking dish, dredge with flour, and pour melted butter or clarified fat over it. Bake for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with melted butter mixed with chopped parsley or a piquant sauce.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Chive + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Chive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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, cooking through in the oven as the centerpiece.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and bind with the suet and egg to give the forcemeat a soft, cohesive texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich as it bakes.
Beaten egg
Binds the forcemeat so it holds together inside the fish.
Melted butter or clarified fat
Coats the fish to add richness and encourage golden browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Stuffing and sewing the mackerel. The forcemeat must be firmly bound with egg so it holds together, and the sides must be sewn closed so the stuffing stays inside while the fish cooks through.

Swap the chive

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

  1. Chivethe original
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, pepper, flour, butter, egg. 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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