Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Salt Mackerel
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the salt mackerel in cold water overnight.
Cook
Place the fish in a saucepan and cook slowly for 10 minutes.
Pour off the water, add a small piece of butter to the pan, and fry for 5 minutes.
Serve
Transfer to a hot dish and garnish with lemon slices and parsley.
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.
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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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, softened by soaking to draw out excess salt.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the fish brown lightly in the pan.
The step that matters
Soaking the salt mackerel overnight. Salted fish is very salty, so soaking in cold water draws out surplus salt. Skipping or shortening the soak leaves the fish too salty to enjoy.
“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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