Name: Pickled Mackerel, Called Caveach
Ingredients: 6 large mackerel; 1 ounce black pepper, finely ground; 2 nutmegs, finely grated; a little mace, finely ground; 4 cloves, finely ground; a handful coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); oil for frying; vinegar for covering; additional oil for preservation

Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Mackerel, Called Caveach

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

Clean and divide the mackerel; cut each side into three pieces or leave undivided and cut each fish into five or six pieces.
Mix the pepper, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and salt in a bowl.
Make holes in each piece of fish and thrust the seasoning into them, rubbing each piece with the mixture.

Fry and pickle

Fry the seasoned fish in oil until browned.
Let the fish cool, then place them in a stone jar and cover with vinegar.
To preserve for longer, pour oil on top.

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.

Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 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

Mackerel: Oily flesh that holds its shape when fried and absorbs the pickling vinegar.
Black pepper: Adds sharp, pungent heat that balances the richness of the oily fish.
Nutmeg: Contributes warm, aromatic flavour that penetrates the fish through the cut holes.
Cloves: Adds intense aromatic warmth that complements the spiced seasoning.
Vinegar: Acidity that preserves the fried fish and sharpens its flavour.

The step that matters

Frying until browned. Browning the seasoned surface develops deeper, roasted flavour through the Maillard reaction. Frying also drives off surface moisture, which helps the fish keep well once it is covered in vinegar.

Swap the mace

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

Allspicefits better
Cinnamonfits better
Cardamomfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, nutmeg, clove, 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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Pickled Mackerel, Called Caveach