Name: Pickled or Soused Shad
Ingredients: 1 cup coarse sea salt; water (enough to cover the fish); whole cloves; whole allspice; whole mace; 1 piece red pepper pod (seeds removed); ½ to 1 cup strong vinegar

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled or Soused Shad

Ingredients

Directions

Fill a fish kettle with enough water to cover the fish and bring it to a boil.
Add 1 cup of coarse sea salt to the boiling water.
Place the fish on a drainer in the kettle and boil for about 30 minutes, depending on the size of the fish.
Remove the fish, drain it thoroughly, and let it cool.
In the same water used for boiling, add whole cloves, allspice, mace, and the red pepper pod.
Boil the mixture until the water is strongly flavored with the spices.
Cut the fish into large pieces and place them in a stone crock.
Mix ½ to 1 cup of strong vinegar with the spiced liquid and pour it over the fish until fully covered.
Cover the crock with a cloth and place the lid on it. Store it away.
The pickled fish will be ready in 1 to 2 days and can be kept in a cold place for up to 2 weeks, ensuring the fish is always covered by the liquid.

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.

Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,189 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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 (fish, clove, allspice, pepper, vinegar):

Cinnamonfits better
Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, clove, allspice, pepper, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.