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To Pickle Mackerel

A method for pickling mackerel with herbs and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 Pickle Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean and split the mackerel in half.

  2. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt and the minced herbs over the fish.

  3. Fry the fish very carefully.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Boil the vinegar with black pepper, cloves, and bay leaves.

  2. Let the vinegar mixture cool.

Pickle and rest

  1. Pour the cooled vinegar over the mackerel in a deep dish.

  2. Cover the dish with a sheet of white paper.

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. Fennel + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together337 recipes

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

  3. Fennel + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together625 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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, and its oils carry the flavour of the herbs and spices.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and firms the fish as it pickles.
Bay leaves
Add a gentle herbal aroma to the pickling liquid.
Fennel
Adds a light anise-like aroma that complements the oily fish.

The step that matters

Let the vinegar mixture cool before pouring. Hot liquid would keep cooking the fried fish and can make it soft and break apart. Cooling the vinegar first keeps the mackerel's texture firm while the acid slowly penetrates it.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fennel, thyme, parsley, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fennel, thyme, parsley, vinegar, pepper. 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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