Name: Baked Mackerel or Herring
Ingredients: 2 mackerel or herrings; 2 teaspoons chopped herbs and onions; 2 teaspoons chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 ounces clarified dripping

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Mackerel or Herring

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the mackerel or herrings in cold water and dry them with a cloth.
Cut off the heads and carefully split open each fish to remove the backbone.
Lay one fish open flat in a baking dish, skin side down.
Wash and dry a sprig of parsley, then chop it finely.
Chop half an onion, a sprig of thyme, and marjoram finely.
Grate a few bread crumbs until you have about 2 teaspoons.
Mix the onion, herbs, and bread crumbs together.
Sprinkle pepper and salt over the fish in the baking dish.
Spread the herb and bread crumb mixture over the fish.
Place the other fish on top, skin side up.
Melt the clarified dripping in a saucepan and pour it over the fish.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).