Why it works: Fennel and butter work together. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 647 recipes. Both carry anethole, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓
To Boil Mackerel
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean the mackerel by opening it and removing the insides carefully.
Wash the mackerel and the roes thoroughly.
Boil
Fill a pot with cold water and add the salt, then place the mackerel in the water.
Bring the water gently to a boil, then simmer until the mackerel is cooked.
Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.
Boil small mackerel for 10 to 15 minutes and large mackerel for 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the mackerel when the tails split and the eyes start to bulge.
Serve
Serve on a napkin with fennel or gooseberry sauce and melted butter.
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.
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Fennel + buttertop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together647 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mackerel
- Provides the main flesh, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks in simmering water.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the fish is lightly flavoured as it poaches.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and fat to balance the mild, lean flesh of the fish.
The step that matters
Keep the water at a gentle simmer. A hard rolling boil breaks up delicate fish and makes the flesh tough and ragged. Gentle heat cooks the mackerel evenly and keeps it moist, so remove it as soon as the tails split and the eyes bulge.
“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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