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Baked Herrings or Sprats

Baked herrings or sprats seasoned with allspice, salt, cloves, pepper, onion, bay leaves, vinegar, and small beer.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Herrings or Sprats

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Wash and drain the herrings or sprats without wiping them.

  2. Season the herrings or sprats with allspice, coarse sea salt, and whole cloves.

Bake

  1. Lay the seasoned herrings or sprats in a pan with black pepper, onion, and bay leaves.

  2. Add vinegar and small beer to cover the herrings or sprats.

  3. Cover the pan with paper and bake at 300°F (150°C).

  4. Optionally, sprinkle saltpetre over the herrings or sprats the night before to enhance color.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Herrings or sprats
Are the main protein, and their oily flesh becomes tender and flaky during slow baking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that softens the bones and sharpens the flavor of the fish.
Small beer
Adds liquid and mild malty flavor to the cooking liquid around the fish.
Bay leaves
Add a subtle aromatic herbal note to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Covering the pan with paper before baking. The cover traps steam so the fish cooks gently in the liquid rather than drying out at the oven temperature. Slow, moist heat keeps the flesh tender and helps the bones soften.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, clove, pepper, vinegar, beer. 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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