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Baked Herrings

A baked dish of herrings coated in breadcrumb and herb mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Baked Herrings

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the herrings

  1. Split the herrings in half and remove the backbone.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the breadcrumbs, suet, herbs, salt, and pepper together, and bind with the egg or milk.

  2. Spread some of the mixture on each half of the herrings, roll them up, and place on a buttered baking tray.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with buttered paper and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Serve on a hot dish with slices of lemon and sprigs of fresh parsley.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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, cooking into moist, flaky fish that holds the filling.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and bind with the egg or milk to form a soft, cohesive stuffing.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumb stuffing so it holds together when rolled and baked.

The step that matters

Rolling and covering the herrings. The filling must be spread evenly and the rolls kept tight so the stuffing stays inside while baking. The buttered paper covering traps moisture so the fish cooks gently without drying out.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (thyme, marjoram, pepper, egg):

  1. Winter savoryfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Rosemaryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against thyme, marjoram, pepper, egg. 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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