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 ↓
Pxoiled Smelt
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the poaching liquid
Bring 1.5 pints of water to a boil in a pot.
Add vinegar, salt, cloves, pepper, allspice, and bay leaves to the boiling water.
Cook and serve
Carefully add a few smelt at a time and boil until tender.
Drain the fish and serve with Maitre d’Hotel sauce.
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.
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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,548 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Smelt
- The main fish, cooked gently in the seasoned liquid until tender.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity to the poaching liquid, sharpening the flavour of the fish.
The step that matters
Adding the smelt to the boiling liquid. Adding a few smelt at a time keeps the liquid at a steady boil. Too many cold fish at once cool the water, slow the cooking, and can leave the fish unevenly cooked or broken.
“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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