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Pickled Fish in Vinegar

A pickled fish dish made by marinating herring with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,374 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pickled Fish in Vinegar

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

  1. Wash and clean the herrings, then remove the heads.

  2. Dry the herrings well and cut them into thick pieces.

Pickle and bake

  1. Pack the pieces closely in a jar and add the peppercorns, mace, shallot, bay leaf, vinegar, water, and salt.

  2. Cover the jar tightly and bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1½ 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. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mace + shallottop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  3. Mace + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Herrings
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flaky during slow baking.
Vinegar
Acidifies the liquid, helping preserve the fish and giving it a sharp, tangy flavour.
Salt
Seasons the fish and liquid while helping firm the flesh.
Shallot or onion
Adds mild aromatic sweetness that mellows during the long, gentle bake.

The step that matters

Bake in a cool oven with the jar tightly covered. Low, gentle heat cooks the fish slowly so it becomes tender without breaking apart. A tight cover traps steam and liquid around the pieces, keeping them moist and evenly infused with the vinegar brine.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, 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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