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Baked Herrings and Sprats

Baked herrings and sprats seasoned with allspice, salt, cloves, pepper, onion, bay leaves, vinegar, and beer, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Herrings and Sprats

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Wash the herrings and sprats.

  2. Drain the herrings and sprats without wiping them.

  3. Season the herrings and sprats with allspice, coarse sea salt, whole cloves, and black pepper.

Pack and bake

  1. Place the seasoned herrings and sprats in a pan with chopped onion and bay leaves.

  2. Add vinegar and small beer to cover the fish.

  3. Cover the pan with paper.

  4. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

  5. If desired, sprinkle saltpetre over the fish the night before to enhance color.

Finish and serve

  1. Gut the fish but do not open them.

  2. Fasten sprats in rows with a skewer through the heads.

  3. Broil the sprats.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Herrings and sprats
Oily fish that becomes tender and flaky when baked slowly in liquid.
Vinegar
Acidity that softens the fish and helps preserve it.
Small beer
Liquid that moistens the fish and adds a mild, malty flavour.
Allspice
Warm aromatic spice that flavours the fish.
Saltpetre
Helps the fish keep a pinkish colour when cured.

The step that matters

Baking in a slow oven, covered and in liquid. Gentle, covered heat at low temperature lets the fish cook through and soften without drying out or toughening. A hotter oven or an uncovered pan would dry the flesh before the bones and texture soften.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, clove, pepper, vinegar, beer):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, clove, pepper, vinegar, beer. 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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