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To Pot Mackerel and Herrings

A preserved fish dish where mackerel is salted, layered with onions and spices, then cooked in vinegar and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,928 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

To Pot Mackerel and Herrings

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mackerel

  1. Cut the tail and fins off the mackerel.

  2. Rub the mackerel well with fine salt.

  3. Let the salted mackerel sit in a pan for 2–3 hours to draw out the blood.

  4. Drain and wipe the mackerel well.

Layer and bake

  1. Pack the mackerel into an earthen pan.

  2. Slice onions over the mackerel.

  3. Sprinkle the sliced onions with powdered allspice, mustard seed, and a little coarse sea salt.

  4. Continue layering until all mackerel are packed.

  5. Fill the pan with a mixture of white vinegar and water.

  6. Cover tightly with paste or paper.

  7. Place in a slow oven at 300 °F (150 °C) for 4–6 hours.

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. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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, becoming tender during long, slow cooking.
Onions
Add sweetness and moisture as they soften over the long cooking time.
White vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps preserve the fish.
Fine salt
Draws out moisture and blood from the fish and seasons it throughout.

The step that matters

Cover tightly with paste or paper. A tight seal traps steam and keeps the liquid around the fish, so it cooks gently and stays moist instead of drying out in the oven.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, mustard, 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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