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To Bake Mackerel

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

To Bake Mackerel

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

  1. Fill the cleaned mackerel with oyster forcemeat and sew them up.

  2. Arrange the mackerel closely together in a buttered baking dish.

  3. Lightly flour the mackerel and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  4. Dot the mackerel with small pieces of butter or pour melted butter over them.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  6. Carefully lift the mackerel to a hot dish after baking and serve with melted butter.

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. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

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