Skip to main content
Main

Broiled Fish

A fish fillet seasoned with salt and pepper, broiled over coals and served with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Broiled Fish

Why it works: Fish and pork work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 668 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Broiled Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the fish with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  2. Grease the double broiler with a bit of pork or butter.

  3. Place the fish in the broiler and fasten the two parts together.

Broil

  1. Broil over clear coals until brown on the inside.

  2. Turn the fish and broil slowly on the skin side.

  3. Broil thick mackerel for 12 minutes.

  4. Broil halibut or salmon for 12-15 minutes.

  5. Broil split cod for about the same time.

  6. Turn back the side of the broiler next to the skin.

Serve

  1. Place a warmed dish over the fish.

  2. Turn both the broiler and dish simultaneously.

  3. Serve the fish skin side down, seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Fish + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

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

  5. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky, tender texture under heat.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and carries seasoning when served on the fish.
Pork
Greases the broiler so the fish does not stick, and adds a little richness.

The step that matters

Turn the fish and broil slowly on the skin side. Fish cooks quickly and dries out easily. Slow, gentle heat on the skin side cooks the flesh through while keeping it moist and helping the skin hold together.

“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.

More broiled fish recipes

Sauce 5 See all 100 →

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipes