Skip to main content
Main

To Broil Mackerel Whole

A whole mackerel is broiled after being filled with a roe and herb mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Broil Mackerel Whole

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut off the heads of the mackerel, gut, and wash them clean.

  2. Remove the roe from the neck end and boil it.

  3. Bruise the boiled roe with a spoon.

Make the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, mix the bruised roe, egg yolk, nutmeg, lemon peel, thyme, parsley, pepper, salt, and bread crumbs.

  2. Fill the mackerel with the mixture and dust with flour.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the mackerel until cooked through.

  2. Serve with plain butter and a drizzle of catchup or walnut pickle if desired.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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, carrying the stuffing and cooking through under the broiler.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when filled and cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body to the stuffing, giving it a firmer texture.
Fresh parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma that lightens the rich fish and roe.
Lemon peel
Adds bright aromatic oils that cut the richness of the fish and roe.

The step that matters

Broil the mackerel until cooked through. Fish cooks quickly, and overcooking dries out the flesh and can toughen the stuffing. Check for flakiness at the thickest part and remove it as soon as it is done.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, thyme, parsley, pepper, bread, flour):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, thyme, parsley, pepper, bread, flour. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes