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Smelts to Pot

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Smelts to Pot

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

  1. Wash the smelts carefully and remove the insides.

  2. Sprinkle mace, pepper, and coarse sea salt over the fish.

  3. Place the smelts in a baking dish with pieces of butter.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

  5. Allow the smelts to cool slightly, then drain on a clean cloth.

  6. Transfer the smelts to pots.

  7. Clarify the butter used for baking, adding more if necessary, and pour it over the fish.

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 + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  3. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Smelt + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together198 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Smelt + macetop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53 recipes

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against smelt, butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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