Why it works: Fish and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,487 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
To Broil Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and broil
Split the fish open and place it on a wire broiler.
Position the broiler far from the fire initially to prevent burning.
Once the fish is cooked through, move it closer to the coals.
Broil until nicely browned, then sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Serve
Serve on a hot platter with Maitre d'Hotel sauce.
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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Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,487 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
- Fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through gently and then browning on the surface.
The step that matters
Moving the fish closer to the coals after it is cooked through. Starting far from the heat cooks the thick flesh gently so the inside does not dry out, while the later move close to the coals browns the surface quickly. Reversing this order risks scorching the outside before the center is done.
“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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