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Mackerel Stewed with Wine

A stew of mackerel simmered in wine with butter, flour, mace, salt, cayenne, mustard, and claret.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mackerel Stewed with Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, mix the flour and butter until smooth.

  2. Heat over low heat until the butter is melted.

  3. Add the mace, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  4. Gradually pour in the claret.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Stew the fish

  1. Gently add the mackerel.

  2. Stew for 15 to 20 minutes, turning halfway through.

  3. Carefully remove the mackerel and place on a serving dish.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir the mustard into the sauce.

  2. Bring the sauce to a boil.

  3. Pour the sauce over the fish.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Mace + port winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together695 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Flour and butter 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
The main fish, which cooks gently in the simmering sauce until flaky and tender.
Butter
Melted with the flour to form a smooth base that gives the sauce richness and body.
Flour
Mixed with the butter to thicken the sauce and give it structure.
Claret
Forms the liquid of the sauce, adding acidity and wine flavour as it reduces.
Prepared mustard
Stirred into the sauce to add sharp, pungent flavour that cuts the richness of the fish.

The step that matters

Bring the sauce to a boil before adding the mustard and pouring. The flour needs to be fully heated in the liquid to thicken the sauce properly, and a smooth, hot sauce coats the fish evenly without becoming lumpy or thin.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, pepper, port wine, mustard):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, pepper, port wine, mustard. 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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