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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the herring
Clean the herring without washing them.
Remove the heads, fins, and bones.
Season the herring with pepper, salt, and minced onion.
Roll the herring tightly and pack them into a jar.
Pickle and bake
Mix vinegar and water, then pour over the herring with whole black pepper.
Cover the jar with bladder or paper and bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).
Once cooled, remove the cover, pour a little cold vinegar over the herring, and seal the jar.
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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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Fresh herring
- Forms the main body of the dish and is the protein that softens during slow baking.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the fish in the jar.
- Whole black pepper
- Infuses warm, aromatic spice into the liquid as the fish cooks.
The step that matters
Rolling and packing the herring tightly. Tight rolling keeps each fillet in a neat shape and packs the jar so the fish stays covered by the liquid. Loose packing lets pieces float or dry out during baking.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Cabbagefits better
- 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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