Name: To Pickle or Bake Herrings
Ingredients: herring; mace; cloves; black pepper; coarse sea salt; bay leaves; vinegar; water

Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

To Pickle or Bake Herrings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the herring

Scale and wash the herring, cut off the heads, and remove the roes if desired.
Season the fish with mace, cloves, black pepper, and coarse sea salt.
Layer the herring in a deep pan, placing two or three bay leaves between each layer.

Pickle and bake

Mix equal parts vinegar and water, then pour over the herring.
Cover the pan tightly with brown paper and place it in a 300°F (150°C) oven until cool.

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.

Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,386 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,257 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Herring: The main fish, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks gently in the pickling liquid.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that preserves the fish and gives the pickled flavor its sharp tang.
Bay leaves: Contribute a subtle herbal aroma that moves into the fish as it pickles.
Cloves: Add a warm, pungent aroma that flavors the fish during pickling.
Mace: Adds a warm, nutmeg-like aroma that complements the fish.
Black pepper: Adds mild heat and aroma that balances the richness of the fish.

The step that matters

Baking low and covered until cool. A gentle 300°F oven with a tight cover heats the fish slowly so it cooks through without breaking apart or drying out. Covering traps moisture and steam, keeping the fish tender while the vinegar mixture soaks in.