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Mackerel, Horseradish and Oyster Sauce

Curing mackerel is easy and gives brilliant flavour. Coupled with oyster mayonnaise this dish is sensational.

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Why it works: Horseradish and oyster work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 282 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Cook2 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Horseradish + oystertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together282 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Dill + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together976 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + dilltop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together530 recipes

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

  5. Dill + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,630 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (dill, horseradish, sugar, cream cheese, lemon, pepper, butter):

  1. Mustardbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against dill, horseradish, sugar, cream cheese, lemon, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).