Why it works: Flour and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,066 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fresh Herrings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scale and wash the herrings.
Remove the gills and eyes, then wash again and dry.
Score the back of each herring.
Shake flour over the herrings.
Cook and serve
Place them on a reversible gridiron and broil for about 10 minutes.
Serve with Mustard Sauce.
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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Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,066 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,120 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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; their oily flesh stays moist and tender under direct heat.
- Flour
- Dusted on the surface, it helps the skin dry slightly and brown during grilling.
The step that matters
Scoring the back of each herring. Shallow cuts through the thick back let heat reach the dense flesh so it cooks through evenly without the skin burning first.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sauce):
- Shallotfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sauce. 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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