Why it works: Dill and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 560 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
- For the catfish
- For the mustard-dill sauce
Directions
Prepare the catfish
Sprinkle catfish with garlic salt and lemon pepper.
Preheat broiler.
Place fish on the greased rack of an unheated broiler pan.
Tuck fish under any thin edges.
Broil and make the sauce
Broil 3 inches from the heat for 4 to 6 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.
Melt butter or margarine in a small saucepan.
Stir in flour.
Add milk all at once.
Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.
Cook and stir one minute more.
Stir in parsley, dill, Dijon mustard, and salt.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Dill + mustardtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together560 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Parsley + dilltop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together668 recipes
Shared aroma: p-mentha-1,3,8-triene (camphor, herbal).
-
Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,036 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Lemon + dilltop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together976 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Catfish fillets
- Provide the main protein, which turns opaque and flakes when fully cooked.
- Butter or margarine
- Forms the fat base of the sauce and carries flavor into the roux.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the sauce with the melted butter as a roux.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it heats.
- Dijon mustard
- Adds sharp, tangy flavor to the cream sauce.
The step that matters
Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. The flour must be heated in the sauce until it reaches a boil, which swells its starch granules and thickens the milk. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin and possibly tasting of raw flour.
Flavor stand-ins for the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (catfish, lemon, pepper, butter, flour, milk, parsley):
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Dillbetter flavor fit
- Marjorambetter flavor fit
- Garlicthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against catfish, lemon, pepper, butter, flour, milk, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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