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Fresh Mackerel, Broiled

Broiled fresh mackerel seasoned with salt and pepper, served with parsley sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fresh Mackerel, Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dress and wash the mackerel in cold water, then dry with a linen cloth.

  2. Split the mackerel down the back and cut into pieces 3-4 inches long.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Grease the gridiron with a piece of fat pork or lard.

Broil and serve

  1. Place the mackerel on the gridiron and broil for 30 minutes, turning the mackerel after 15 minutes.

  2. Once done, transfer to a warm chafing dish and serve with parsley sauce.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pork + parsleytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,804 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Pork + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Parsley + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,693 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

Mackerel
Provides the main body of the dish, with rich oily flesh that stays moist when broiled.
Fat pork or lard
Greases the gridiron so the fish does not stick and the surface can brown.

The step that matters

Turning the mackerel at 15 minutes. Broiling heats the fish from one side, so turning it partway through helps both sides cook evenly and keeps the flesh from drying or burning on the exposed face.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, pork, sauce):

  1. Sagefits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, pork, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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