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Baked Herrings or Sprats

Baked herrings or sprats seasoned with allspice, salt, cloves, pepper, onion, bay leaves, vinegar, and small beer, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Herrings or Sprats

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 fish

  1. Wash and drain the herrings or sprats without wiping them.

  2. Season with allspice, coarse sea salt, whole cloves, and black pepper.

  3. Place the fish in a pan with an onion and bay leaves.

  4. Add enough vinegar and small beer to cover them.

Bake

  1. Cover the pan with paper and bake at 300°F (150°C).

  2. If desired, sprinkle saltpeter over them the night before to enhance color.

  3. Gut the fish but do not open them.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Herrings or sprats
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flaky as they bake.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the fish.
Small beer
Adds a mild malty liquid that softens the flavour and keeps the fish moist.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes that flavour the fish.

The step that matters

Cover the pan with paper and bake at 300°F (150°C). A low, covered bake cooks the fish gently in its liquid, so it stays moist and does not dry out or toughen.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, clove, pepper, vinegar, beer. 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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