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Red Herrings and Other Dried Fish

A dried fish dish prepared by broiling or boiling, seasoned with sweet oil and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Haddock and whiting match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 103 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Red Herrings and Other Dried Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the dried fish in lukewarm water until softened; larger fish for 12 hours, smaller for 2 hours.

  2. Hang the fish by the tails to drain.

Broil

  1. If broiling, flour the fish and place on a gridiron over a clear charcoal fire.

  2. Baste with sweet oil using a feather, turning until both sides are well cooked.

Boil

  1. If boiling, keep the fish at a simmer; cook larger fish for 30 minutes and smaller fish for 5 minutes.

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. Haddock + whitingtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Fish + whitingtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Fish + haddocktop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together257 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Haddock + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together401 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Whiting + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried fish
Soaking rehydrates the dried flesh, so it becomes tender and flakes when cooked.
Flour
Coats the fish surface, helping it brown and form a light crust over the charcoal fire.
Sweet oil
Basting adds fat and moisture to the surface, promoting browning and preventing the fish from drying out.

The step that matters

Soaking the dried fish. Soaking rehydrates the dried flesh so it cooks tender. Larger fish need the full 12 hours because thick dried flesh takes longer to absorb water. Under-soaking leaves the fish tough and unevenly cooked.

“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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