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Broiled Spanish Mackerel

A grilled Spanish mackerel seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Broiled Spanish Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Split the fish down the back and remove the backbone.

  2. Wash the fish in cold water.

  3. Dry the fish with a clean cloth.

  4. Sprinkle the fish lightly with salt.

Broil

  1. Place the fish on a buttered grill, flesh side down.

  2. Cook over a clear fire until it begins to brown.

  3. Turn the fish over.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix melted butter, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

  2. Pour the mixture over the fish.

  3. Serve the fish hot on a warm dish.

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 + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  4. Spanish mackerel + lemontop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together32 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

  5. Spanish mackerel + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together34 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Spanish mackerel
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked by direct heat until browned.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps keep the fish from sticking to the grill.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich fish and butter sauce.

The step that matters

Cook over a clear fire until it begins to brown. Fish flesh is delicate and dries out quickly under strong heat. Watching for the first colour and turning promptly keeps it moist while the surface browns.

“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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