Skip to main content
Main

Mackerel, Baked

A baked mackerel topped with a breadcrumb, parsley, onion, and spice mixture, served with brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mackerel, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Prepare the mackerel by cleaning and removing the gills.

  2. Scald the minced onions.

  3. Mix bread crumbs, parsley, onions, mushroom, cayenne, salt, thyme, and nutmeg.

Assemble and bake

  1. Sprinkle the mixture over one mackerel, skin side down.

  2. Place the second mackerel on top, skin side up.

  3. Grease a sheet of paper.

  4. Cover the fish, tucking it down.

  5. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes, less if the fish are small.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Prepare a brown sauce with the fish's liquor.

  2. Boil the sauce.

  3. Skim the sauce.

  4. Serve the fish on a hot dish.

  5. Pour the sauce around it.

  6. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  7. Garnish with fried parsley or small fried onions or mushrooms.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 and releases its own juices and fat as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the fish and onions, giving the stuffing body and a light texture.
Minced onions
Add savoury flavour and moisture to the stuffing; scalding softens their sharpness.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma that brightens the rich fish.
Mushroom
Adds earthy flavour and moisture to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Covering and tucking the fish before baking. Sealing the paper tightly around the fish traps steam so it cooks gently and stays moist, while loose wrapping lets the stuffing dry out and the juices escape.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, parsley, mushroom, pepper, thyme, nutmeg, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parsley, mushroom, pepper, thyme, nutmeg, 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.

More baked mackerel recipes

or Herring 4 See all 75 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipes