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Broiled Salt Mackerel

Broiled salt mackerel prepared by soaking, grilling, and baking with butter and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,933 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Broiled Salt Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash and soak the mackerel in cold water for 12 to 14 hours.

  2. Hang the fish by the head to drip for 8 to 10 hours.

  3. Wipe the fish clean.

Broil the fish

  1. Heat a grill over live coals.

  2. Grease the grill with a piece of salt pork or bacon.

  3. Place the fish on the grill, skin side up.

  4. Broil until brown.

  5. Carefully turn the fish.

  6. Use a knife to separate any parts that stick.

  7. Brown the other side until cooked through.

Serve

  1. Transfer the fish to a hot dish, skin side down.

  2. Distribute small lumps of butter on top.

  3. Sprinkle with pepper.

  4. Place in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a few minutes to let the butter soak in before serving.

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. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salt mackerel
Is the main fish; salting and soaking remove salt so the flesh can be cooked and eaten.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and carries flavour into the fish as it melts.
Salt pork or bacon
Greases the grill so the fish skin does not stick, and adds a little fat.

The step that matters

Carefully turn the fish. The skin tends to stick and tear when the fish is turned on a hot grill. Loosening the fish first and turning it gently keeps it whole and lets both sides brown evenly.

“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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