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Kippered Fish

A method of preserving fish by rubbing with sugar and salt, hanging, and optionally using saltpetre before broiling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Kippered Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the fish

  1. Ensure the fish is fresh, clean, and dry.

  2. Rub the fish with sugar and salt.

  3. Hang the fish in a cool place wrapped in a cloth.

  4. Mix saltpetre with sugar.

  5. Rub the mixture on the fish, then hang the fish.

Cut and season

  1. Cut the fish into slices or halves.

  2. Dry the fish with a clean cloth.

  3. Rub the fish with sweet oil or melted butter.

  4. Sprinkle the fish with a little salt.

Cook on the gridiron

  1. Preheat a gridiron over a clear fire and clean it.

  2. Rub the gridiron with sweet oil or lard.

  3. Place the fish on the gridiron.

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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Fish + sugartop 42% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together207 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
The main ingredient, which is cured, dried and then cooked over direct heat.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the fish and keeps its colour during curing.
Sweet oil or butter
Adds fat and moisture to the surface and helps the fish brown lightly.

The step that matters

Clean and grease the gridiron before placing the fish. A clean, oiled grid keeps the fish from sticking and tearing. Food residue and bare metal bond to the flesh as it heats, so the skin and flakes stay intact only when the surface is prepared first.

“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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