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To Bake Mackerel

Baked mackerel stuffed with roe, parsley, herbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Bake Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Open and clean the mackerel thoroughly, then wipe them dry.

  3. Season the inside with pepper and salt.

Make and stuff

  1. In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, chopped roe, parsley, sweet herbs, egg yolk, and additional pepper and salt to taste.

  2. Stuff the mixture into the mackerel and sew it closed.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the fish in a deep baking dish and lightly dredge with flour.

  2. Dot the fish with small pieces of cold butter.

  3. Bake in the oven for 28 to 30 minutes.

  4. Serve hot with parsley and butter.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

Flour and butter 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
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the flesh that cooks through in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind with the egg yolk to form a soft, cohesive stuffing.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing together and adds richness as it sets in the oven.
Roe
Adds richness and a briny flavour to the stuffing.
Cold butter
Melts over the fish, adding moisture and fat for a rich, golden surface.
Flour
Dries the surface of the fish lightly, helping it take on colour as it bakes.

The step that matters

Stuffing and sewing the fish closed. If the stuffing is packed too loosely or the fish is not sealed well, the filling can fall out during baking. Stuffing it firmly without overfilling keeps the mixture inside and helps the fish cook evenly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, bread, roe, egg, flour, butter):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, bread, roe, egg, flour, butter. 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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