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To Bake Herrings

A baked herring preserved in vinegar and water with onions and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Bake Herrings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the herrings

  1. Clean the herrings, removing heads and fins.

  2. Cut out the bones.

  3. Sprinkle each herring with salt, pepper, and minced onion.

  4. Roll the herrings tightly.

Pack and bake

  1. Pack the rolled herrings into a jar.

  2. Mix vinegar and water.

  3. Pour the mixture over the herrings with whole black pepper.

  4. Cover the jar with paper or bladder.

  5. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 1 hour.

Finish and seal

  1. Let the jar cool.

  2. Remove the cover.

  3. Pour a little cold vinegar over the herrings.

  4. Seal the jar.

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

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

  2. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Herrings
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flaky when baked slowly.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the fish.
Onion
Adds a mild aromatic sharpness that infuses the fish as it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 1 hour. Gentle, sustained heat cooks the fish through while the covered jar keeps moisture in. Too hot or too brief leaves the fish unevenly cooked or dry.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar. 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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