Name: Baked Mackerel, Ob Whitings
Ingredients: 2 whole mackerel or whitings, cleaned; ½ tablespoon wine; a few drops chili vinegar; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 2 tablespoons butter, softened; 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Mackerel, Ob Whitings

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

2 whole mackerel or whitings, cleaned
½ tablespoon wine
a few drops chili vinegar
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Wash and dry the fish, then wrap them in a soft cloth for a while.
Replace the roes in the fish and place them in a baking dish.

Season and bake

Mix the butter and flour together, then spread it over the fish.
Add wine, chili vinegar, salt, and cayenne to the dish.
Arrange the fish with heads and tails towards each other, backs down.
Cover with buttered paper and press down.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, then remove the paper and serve with the sauce.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,493 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Whiting + flourtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together303 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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 or whitings: The fish is the main component, cooked gently in the oven until tender.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, coating the fish as it bakes.
All-purpose flour: Mixed with the butter, it thickens the juices into a light sauce.
Wine: Adds acidity and liquid that moistens the fish and blends into the sauce.

The step that matters

Cover with buttered paper and press down. The paper traps moisture and steam around the fish, keeping the flesh from drying out during the 300°F bake.

“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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Baked Mackerel, Ob Whitings