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Broiled Whitefish

Broiled whitefish is a whole fish seasoned with salt and pepper, grilled until browned on both sides.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Broiled Whitefish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the whitefish down the back and soak it in salted water for several hours.

  2. Wipe the fish dry and place it flesh side down on a well-greased grill over a hot fire.

  3. Sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook until brown.

  2. Turn and brown the other side.

  3. Dish the fish and serve.

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

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

  2. Whitefish + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Whitefish + peppertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together97 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whole whitefish
Forms the main body of the dish, and its flesh cooks through and flakes as it browns.
Salt
Seasons the flesh and, through the initial soak, helps it hold moisture during cooking.

The step that matters

Wipe the fish dry before placing it on the grill. Surface moisture steams the skin instead of letting it brown, and wet fish sticks to the grate. Drying the surface lets it sear and release cleanly.

“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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