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Red Herrings, to Dress

Red herrings soaked in boiling beer, then buttered and served with egg sauce, buttered bread, and mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Red Herrings, to Dress

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the red herrings open.

  2. Pour boiling small beer over them and soak for 30 minutes.

Heat and serve

  1. Drain the herrings and heat them gently over the fire.

  2. Rub cold butter over the heated herrings and serve.

  3. Serve with egg sauce, buttered bread, and mashed potatoes.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Beer + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Red herrings
Provide the main fish, which the beer soak moistens and flavours.
Small beer
Soaks into the herrings, adding moisture and a malty flavour.
Cold butter
Melts over the warm herrings, adding richness and a glossy finish.
Mashed potatoes
Serve as a starchy side that soaks up the herring juices and butter.

The step that matters

Heating the herrings gently. Over strong heat the fish can dry out or break apart before it is warmed through. Gentle heat keeps the moisture the beer soak added, so the fish stays tender.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beer, butter, egg, sauce, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beer, butter, egg, sauce, bread. 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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