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Baked Mackerel, or Whitings

Baked Mackerel, or Whitings, is a fish dish baked with wine, chili vinegar, salt, cayenne, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Baked Mackerel, or Whitings

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fish

  1. Open the fish just enough to empty and clean them thoroughly.

  2. Wash and dry the fish, then wrap them in a soft cloth for a while.

  3. Replace the roe inside the fish and place them in a baking dish.

Season and bake

  1. Add wine, chili vinegar, salt, cayenne, and blend butter with flour for each fish.

  2. Arrange the fish with heads and tails towards each other, backs down.

  3. Cover with buttered paper and press down.

  4. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for 20 minutes.

  5. Remove the paper and serve the fish with the sauce.

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. Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 or whitings
The fish is the main substance of the dish, cooked gently until flaky and moist.
Butter
Blended with flour, it enriches the sauce and adds richness and moisture to the fish.
Flour
Mixed with butter, it thickens the liquids in the baking dish into a light sauce.
Wine
Adds moisture and a mild acidity that contributes to the flavor of the sauce.
Chili vinegar
Adds sharp acidity and heat that brightens the rich butter sauce.

The step that matters

Cover with buttered paper and press down. Covering the fish traps steam so it cooks gently and stays moist, while pressing keeps it in contact with the liquid for even cooking. Buttered paper prevents sticking.

“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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