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Herring Roes Baked

Baked herring roe with mushrooms, shallot, parsley, brown sauce, lemon, anchovy, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Herring Roes Baked

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 mushroom mixture

  1. Brush the inside of the soufflé cases with clarified butter.

  2. Heat 1 ounce of butter in a small pan.

  3. Add mushrooms, shallot, and parsley. Fry lightly.

  4. Drain the butter into a sauté pan.

  5. Add brown sauce, lemon juice, and anchovy essence to the mushroom mixture, seasoning to taste.

  6. When hot, pour a small teaspoonful of the mixture into each soufflé case.

Fill and bake

  1. Reheat the butter in the sauté pan.

  2. Toss the roes gently until lightly browned.

  3. Place one roe in each case.

  4. Cover the roes with the remaining sauce.

  5. Add a thin layer of breadcrumbs.

  6. Top with 2 or 3 small pieces of butter.

  7. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes.

  8. Serve hot.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Lemon + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Soft herring roes
Provide the delicate, creamy main filling that cooks gently into a tender texture.
Butter
Carries flavour, enriches the sauce, and browns the roes and breadcrumbs.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy body and savoury flavour to the base layer under the roes.
Brown sauce
Adds savoury depth and moisture to the mixture covering the roes.
Breadcrumbs
Form a light crust that browns in the oven and adds texture on top.

The step that matters

Toss the roes gently until lightly browned. Roe is delicate and breaks apart if overcooked or handled roughly. A brief, gentle sear sets the outside and keeps the inside soft and creamy.

“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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