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Fish Baked in Vinegar

Fish baked in vinegar with peppercorns, mace, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,415 recipes. The science ↓

Fish Baked in Vinegar

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash the fish thoroughly in cold water.

  2. Cut the fish into thick pieces.

  3. Lay the pieces close together in a jar.

  4. Add the peppercorns, salt, and mace.

  5. Pour in the vinegar.

Bake and serve

  1. Tie a piece of brown paper tightly over the top of the jar with string.

  2. Place the jar in a 300°F (150°C) oven and bake for 2 hours.

  3. Serve the fish cold.

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. Mace + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes
  2. Fish + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together586 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it slowly cooks in the acidic liquid.
Vinegar
Acidity that flavours the fish and helps preserve it during the long, slow bake.
Peppercorns
Add a sharp, aromatic pungency that seasons the fish as it bakes.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the vinegar and fish.

The step that matters

Tie the brown paper tightly over the jar. A tight seal keeps the vinegar and spices from evaporating and keeps the jar's contents steady during the two-hour bake. A loose cover lets liquid escape and can leave the fish drier and less evenly seasoned.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, vinegar. 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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