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Soused Mackerel

Mackerel preserved in vinegar and spices, boiled and served with fennel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Soused Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the mackerel well and split them open.

  2. Cut the mackerel into four pieces.

Cook

  1. Place the mackerel in a stewpan with vinegar, cloves, allspice, pepper, salt, cayenne, and bay leaves.

  2. Boil quickly for 30 minutes.

Serve and keep

  1. Transfer to a deep dish and serve with fennel.

  2. Turn the mackerel over each day.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + fenneltop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together350 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + fenneltop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Mackerel
Provides the main flesh, which firms and flakes as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that firms the fish and sharpens the flavour of the liquid.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Boil quickly for 30 minutes. A hard, sustained boil can break the mackerel apart and toughen its flesh. Vinegar firms the fish, but the long boil still needs care to keep the pieces intact and tender.

Swap the fennel

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, clove, allspice, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Fennelthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, allspice, 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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