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Smelts

Smelts seasoned with pepper, nutmeg, mace, salt, bay leaves, and simmered in red wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Smelts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the smelts

  1. Wash, clean, and gut the smelts.

  2. Mix the black pepper, nutmeg, mace, coarse sea salt, and common salt together until fine.

Pack and pickle

  1. Layer the smelts in a jar, sprinkling the seasoning and bay leaves between each layer.

  2. Boil red wine. Pour enough over the smelts to cover them.

  3. Cover with a plate. Let cool.

  4. Seal tightly and store for later use.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Mace + red winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together381 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Smelts
Are the main fish that gets cured and softened in the wine and salt.
Red wine
Covers the fish and adds acidity that helps preserve and flavour it.
Common salt
Draws moisture out of the fish and helps preserve it during storage.

The step that matters

Sealing and storing the jar. The fish must be fully covered by wine and sealed airtight so that salt and acidity can preserve it. Gaps exposed to air allow spoilage to start.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (smelt, pepper, nutmeg, red wine):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against smelt, pepper, nutmeg, red wine. 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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