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To Pickle Smelts

Smelts are pickled in red wine with spices and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Pickle Smelts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and gut the smelts.

Pack and pickle

  1. Layer the smelts in a jar, sprinkling the seasoning and bay leaves between each layer.

  2. Boil red wine and pour it over the smelts until they are covered.

  3. Cover with a plate and let cool, then tie down tightly.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Mace + red winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together381 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Smelts
The fish being preserved; their flesh is what the pickling brine penetrates and firms.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the fish and keeps its colour during curing.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the fish and seasons it while curing it.
Red wine
Forms the covering liquid that adds acidity and flavour and helps keep air away from the fish.

The step that matters

Covering the smelts fully with boiled wine. Any fish left above the liquid can spoil, since air exposure allows microbial growth. Boiling the wine first helps it stay clean before it goes over the fish, and the fish must stay submerged for the pickle to protect it.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (smelt, pepper, nutmeg, red wine):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against smelt, pepper, nutmeg, red wine. 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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