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Fresh Herrings

Broiled herrings topped with butter, breadcrumbs, parsley, and served with maître d'hôtel sauce and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon 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 ↓

Fresh Herrings

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the herrings

  1. Wipe the herrings well.

  2. Empty the herrings.

  3. Scale the herrings carefully.

  4. Cut off a small piece of the tail and head to prevent burning.

  5. Spread butter over the bottom of a paper case.

  6. Broil the herrings over a brisk fire until well done.

  7. Remove the soft roes without breaking and place them in the case.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle the herrings with pepper, coarse sea salt, breadcrumbs, and finely chopped parsley.

  2. Add small bits of butter on top.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  4. Once done, add maître d'hôtel sauce and juice of 1 lemon to the case.

  5. 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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

What each ingredient does

Herrings
The main fish; its flesh cooks through and forms the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the crumbs brown in the oven.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust that keeps the fish moist underneath.
Juice of 1 lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the rich fish and butter.

The step that matters

Broil the herrings until well done. Fish cooked over a brisk fire can dry out or burn quickly. The tail and head were trimmed to prevent burning, and the cook must watch the fish closely so the flesh cooks through without drying.

“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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