Name: To Bake Mackerel
Ingredients: Mackerel, cleaned and dried; Oyster forcemeat (see Chapter VIII); Coarse sea salt; Butter; Lemon

Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

To Bake Mackerel

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.

Fill the cleaned mackerel with oyster forcemeat and sew them up.
Arrange the mackerel closely in a baking dish with the roe.
Lightly flour the mackerel and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Dot with small pieces of butter or pour melted butter over them.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.
Carefully transfer to a hot dish and serve with melted butter and lemon.

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.

Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Oyster + lemontop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,942 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).