On Food and Cooking

benefit is that it leaves the fish with a
distinctive, almost fresh aroma. Acid
conditions cause heavy-smelling aldehydes,
which accentuate the fishiness of TMA, to
react with water molecules and become
nonvolatile, so that lighter alcohols dominate
the aroma. Pickled herring and other fish can
be surprisingly delicate.
As the recipe from Apicius shows (see box
below), inhabitants of the Mediterranean
region have been marinating fish for
thousands of years. The common modern
term, escabeche and variants on it, derives
from the Arabic sikbaj, which in the 13th
century named meat and fish dishes with
vinegar (acetic acid, p. 772) added toward the
end of the preparation. Other acidic liquids
were also used, including wine and verjuice,
the juice of unripe grapes.
Fish and shellfish can be marinated in acid
either raw or after an initial salting or
cooking. In northern Europe, for example, raw