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To Broil Mackerel Whole

A whole mackerel is filled with a seasoned roe mixture and broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley 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 ↓

To Broil Mackerel Whole

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut off the heads, gut, and wash the mackerel clean.

  2. Remove the roe from the neck end and boil it.

  3. Bruise the boiled roe with a spoon.

Make the stuffing

  1. Mix the bruised roe with the egg yolk, nutmeg, lemon peel, thyme, parsley, pepper, salt, and bread crumbs.

  2. Fill the mackerel with the mixture and dust it with flour.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the mackerel until cooked through.

  2. Serve with melted butter and a little catchup or walnut pickle.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 carries the stuffing while it cooks.
Egg yolk
Binds the roe and crumbs together so the stuffing holds its shape.
Roe (in the method)
Adds richness and a soft, savoury texture to the stuffing.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body so it does not run.
Lemon peel
Adds bright aroma and a fresh acidity that cuts the richness of the fish.
Flour
Dusted on the outside to help the skin brown during broiling.

The step that matters

Broil the mackerel until cooked through. Mackerel is oily and dries out quickly under direct heat, so watch closely and stop once the flesh is opaque and flakes easily, keeping the stuffing moist.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, thyme, parsley, pepper, bread, flour):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, thyme, parsley, pepper, bread, flour. 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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