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Herring Roe Tit-bits

A dish of bacon-wrapped herring roe served on toasted bread with anchovy paste and gherkin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Herring Roe Tit-bits

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the roe

  1. Divide the roes in half and fold each half in two.

  2. Cut thin slices of bacon large enough to roll around the roe.

  3. Sprinkle the inside of each bacon piece with lemon juice, Krona pepper, and salt.

  4. Fold the bacon around the roe and secure with a large pin.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry in a sauté pan or bake at 400°F (200°C) until browned and crisp.

  2. Spread the fried bread or toast with anchovy paste and add strips of gherkin.

  3. Cover with buttered paper and heat in the oven.

  4. Remove the pins from the roes, sprinkle with Krona pepper, and serve on the prepared bread.

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

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

  2. Roe + anchovytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  4. Anchovy + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh soft roes
Provide the rich, creamy filling that becomes soft and delicate when cooked.
Bacon
Wraps the roe and crisps during cooking, adding salt, smoky flavour and contrasting texture.
Fried bread or buttered toast
Gives a crisp, buttery base that holds the roe and absorbs its juices.
Anchovy paste
Adds a salty, savoury depth that complements the richness of the roe.
Pickled gherkin
Adds acidity and crunch that cut through the fat of the roe and bacon.

The step that matters

Fry or bake until the bacon is browned and crisp. Bacon fat must render and the outside must crisp while the roe inside stays moist and only just set. Overcooking dries and toughens the roe, so watch the pan closely and remove it once the bacon colours.

“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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