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To Bake or Pickle Herrings

A baked or pickled herring dish seasoned with pepper, salt, bay leaves, onion, vinegar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Bake or Pickle Herrings

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the herring

  1. Clean the herrings. Wipe them with a damp cloth to remove scales. Do not wash them.

  2. Cut off the heads, tails, and fins. Split the herrings down the middle. Remove the center bones.

  3. Lay the fish flat. Season the fish with pepper and salt. Roll the fish up with the skin side out.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the fish neatly in a pie dish. Add a bay leaf between each herring. Add a small piece of onion between each herring.

  2. Mix the vinegar and water. Pour the mixture over the fish. Cover the dish with greased paper. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 2 to 3 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or 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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Herrings
The main fish, which is cooked whole-rolled until tender and flaky.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickled, tangy flavour and helps firm the fish.
Onion
Adds sharp aromatic flavour that mellows during the long slow bake.
Sweet bay leaves
Contribute a subtle aromatic flavour to the fish and the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Covering the dish during the long bake. The greased paper traps moisture and gentle heat so the fish cooks slowly and stays tender instead of drying out over 2 to 3 hours in the oven.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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