Name: How to Broil Fish
Ingredients: 1 whole fish, cleaned and washed; butter; coarse sea salt; black pepper

Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

How to Broil Fish

Ingredients

1 whole fish, cleaned and washed
butter
coarse sea salt
black pepper

Directions

Dry the fish with a towel.
Rub butter inside and outside the fish, then season with salt and pepper on both sides.
Prepare a sharp fire with good airflow.
Place the fish on the grill and turn it often to prevent charring.
Broil the fish quickly until done.
Transfer the fish to a warm platter with the inside facing up and spread butter over it.
When turning the fish, use a dish to hold it and turn the grill with your other hand, starting with the skin side down.

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.

Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,948 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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