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Herring Roes, Baked

Baked herring roes with mushroom sauce, butter, breadcrumbs, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 ↓

Herring Roes, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the mushroom base

  1. Brush the inside of the soufflé cases with clarified butter.

  2. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a small saucepan. Add the mushrooms, shallot, and parsley and fry lightly.

  3. Drain off the butter into a sauté pan.

  4. Add the brown sauce, lemon juice, and anchovy essence to the mushroom mixture. Season to taste and heat until hot.

  5. Pour a small teaspoonful of the mixture into each soufflé case.

Fill and bake

  1. Reheat the remaining butter in the sauté pan. Toss the roes gently until lightly browned.

  2. Place one roe in each case.

  3. Cover the roes with the remaining sauce.

  4. Add a thin layer of breadcrumbs.

  5. Top with 2 or 3 small pieces of butter.

  6. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 6 to 7 minutes. 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Lemon + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 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

Fresh soft roes
Main filling that becomes tender and lightly browned when tossed in hot butter.
Butter
Carries flavour, browns the roes, and keeps the topping moist as it bakes.
Thick brown sauce
Adds body and savoury depth that binds the filling together.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a soft, moist texture to the base.
Breadcrumbs
Form a light, golden crust over the filling as it bakes.

The step that matters

Baking time and temperature. Roes are delicate and overbaking toughens their proteins and dries them out. Keep the bake short at 400°F, and serve immediately while hot.

“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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