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Baked Mackerel, or Whitings

Baked mackerel or whitings seasoned with wine, chili vinegar, salt, cayenne, butter, and flour, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Mackerel, or Whitings

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Wash the fish and dry it.

  3. Wrap the fish in a soft cloth for a while.

  4. Replace the roes back into the fish.

Season and arrange

  1. Place the fish in a baking dish.

  2. Add wine, chili vinegar, coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper to the dish.

  3. Add the mixture of butter and flour to the dish.

  4. Arrange the fish with heads and tails towards each other, backs down.

  5. Cover the fish with buttered paper and press down.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

  2. Remove the paper.

  3. Serve with the sauce.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Whiting + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mackerel or whitings
The fish is the main component, cooked whole and gently in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the fish stay tender as it bakes.
All-purpose flour
Mixed with butter to thicken the pan juices into a light sauce.
Wine
Adds moisture and aroma to the dish as it cooks around the fish.

The step that matters

Covering the fish with buttered paper. The paper traps steam so the fish cooks gently and stays moist, while pressing it down keeps the fish in contact with the liquid for even cooking.

“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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