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Brill, to Boil

A boiled fish dish made with a whole brill, lemon, salt, water, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and fish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,889 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Brill, to Boil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean the brill and remove the fins.

  2. Rub the fish with lemon juice and a little salt to preserve its whiteness.

Poach and serve

  1. Place the fish in a fish kettle and cover with water.

  2. Add salt and a splash of vinegar to the water.

  3. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer.

  4. Cook for about 20 minutes or until the fish is done.

  5. Serve the fish white side up on a dish, garnished as desired.

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. Lemon + fishtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Lemon + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Brill
Forms the main body of the dish; its firm, flaky flesh holds together during poaching.
Lemon juice
Acidity that helps keep the fish flesh pale and white during cooking.
Vinegar
A small amount of acidity added to the poaching water to help the fish keep its shape.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Boiling the water hard makes the delicate fish flesh break apart and toughen. A gentle simmer cooks the fish evenly and keeps it moist and intact.

“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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