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To Broil Mackerel

Broiled mackerel seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, and parsley.

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 ↓

To Broil Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the mackerel.

  2. Wipe the mackerel dry with a cloth.

  3. Split the mackerel open.

  4. Rub the mackerel with coarse sea salt.

Broil

  1. Prepare bright coals on the hearth.

  2. Grease a gridiron.

  3. Place the mackerel on the gridiron.

  4. Broil the mackerel, turning when one side is done.

Serve

  1. Transfer the mackerel to a hot dish.

  2. Butter the mackerel.

  3. Pepper the mackerel.

  4. Garnish the mackerel with pats of butter mixed with minced parsley, pepper, and salt.

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. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mackerel
The fish is the dish itself; its flesh cooks through over direct heat and becomes flaky.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and carries flavour over the hot fish.

The step that matters

Turning the mackerel on the gridiron. Turn it only once the first side has set and releases cleanly. Turning too early tears the skin and flesh, while waiting too long dries the fish and can scorch the skin.

“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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