Skip to main content
Main

How to Broil Fish

A method for cooking fish by broiling it on a hot gridiron with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

How to Broil Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and prepare the fish by cutting it into portions as for frying.

  2. Coat the fish pieces well with flour.

Broil

  1. Preheat the gridiron until it is nearly red hot, scraping and rubbing it with butter, lard, or suet.

  2. Place the floured fish on the gridiron over a clear fire.

  3. Sprinkle a little pepper and salt over the fish while cooking.

  4. When done, rub some butter on the fish before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve with plain melted butter and optional mustard and vinegar or cornubian sauce.

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 + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked through over direct heat.
Flour
Coats the fish so its surface browns and holds moisture during broiling.
Butter, lard, or suet
Greases the gridiron to stop the fish sticking and adds richness to the surface.

The step that matters

Preheating the gridiron until nearly red hot. A very hot, well-greased grid sears the floured fish quickly, so it browns and releases cleanly instead of sticking and tearing.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, butter, pepper. 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.

More broiled fish recipes

Sauce 5 See all 100 →

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipesFish CutletsFish Cutlets30 recipes