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Mackerel, Baked

Baked mackerel stuffed with veal forcemeat, butter, and flour, served with parsley sauce or lemon butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mackerel, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean the mackerel.

  2. Remove the roes.

  3. Stuff the fish with the forcemeat.

  4. Sew up the opening.

Season and dress

  1. Place the mackerel in a baking dish with the roes.

  2. Add the butter or sweet dripping.

  3. Dredge the mackerel with flour.

  4. Sprinkle the mackerel with coarse sea salt and pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 to 40 minutes, basting occasionally.

  2. Serve with parsley sauce or melted butter mixed with lemon juice and chopped parsley.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Mackerel
Forms the main body of the dish and cooks into tender, flaky flesh.
Veal forcemeat
Fills the cavity, adding richness and moisture as the fish bakes.
Butter or sweet dripping
Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the skin brown and the fish stay moist.
Flour
Dries the fish surface, helping it brown and form a light crust.

The step that matters

Basting occasionally during baking. Basting spreads melted fat over the fish, keeping the surface from drying out and helping it brown evenly. Mackerel is lean and cooks quickly, so dryness is a real risk within the 30 to 40 minute bake.

“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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