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Baked Mackerel

Baked mackerel seasoned with salt, pepper, lemon, and served with maitre d’hotel butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Baked Mackerel

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash the mackerel in cold water, cut off the tails and heads, and open the fish down the back.

  2. Wipe them inside and out with a soft cloth and lay them open, skin down, in a well-greased baking dish.

  3. Sprinkle salt and pepper on them, squeeze a little lemon juice over, and cover with greased kitchen paper.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 20 minutes or until done.

  2. For maitre d'hotel butter, chop parsley finely, wash it, and wring it dry.

  3. Mix parsley with butter, a little pepper, salt, and lemon juice until smooth.

  4. Spread the maitre d'hotel butter on each fish and serve.

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

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mackerel
Firm, oily flesh that stays moist and richly flavoured when baked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and keeping the fish moist.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the fish and balances its richness.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma to the maitre d'hotel butter.

The step that matters

Covering the fish with greased kitchen paper. The cover traps moisture so the fish steams gently in the oven and does not dry out. Greasing it stops it sticking to the flesh and skin when lifted.

“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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