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Potted Kipper

A baked kipper paste made with oil, butter, and pepper, cooled and jarred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,478 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Potted Kipper

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Pour water over the kippers and place them in a fireproof dish.

  3. Bake in the hot oven for eight minutes.

  4. Carefully lift the kippers onto a large dish.

Make the paste

  1. Scoop the oil from the top of the kippers and set it aside.

  2. Remove as many bones as possible from the kippers and add the fish to the oil.

  3. Add a dash of white and black pepper and a good amount of butter.

  4. Pound the mixture into a paste.

Jar and set

  1. Transfer the paste into small jars and let it cool.

  2. Spread a little cold butter on top to exclude air.

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. White pepper + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  2. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  3. White pepper + buttertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 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

Kippers
Provide the main flesh and rich smoky flavour of the paste.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the paste a smooth, spreadable texture.
Oil from the tin
Adds moisture and fat, helping the fish blend into a smooth paste.

The step that matters

Remove as many bones as possible from the kippers. Kipper bones are fine and hard to see once the fish is cooked and flaked. Any left in the paste can be unpleasant to bite into, so checking carefully before pounding matters.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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

“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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