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Broiled Trout

Broiled trout seasoned with butter, herbs, lemon, and thyme, then broiled and served with optional sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Broiled Trout

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and dry the trout well.

  2. Make a cut across the back and fill it with seasoned butter, chives, parsley, lemon juice, and thyme.

  3. Place the trout in a dish, season with salt, pepper, and olive oil, and let it soak for 30 minutes.

  4. Remove the trout from the dish and sprinkle with bread crumbs mixed with chopped herbs.

Broil and serve

  1. Arrange the trout on a well-greased grill and broil over a clear fire for about 15 minutes, turning often to avoid burning.

  2. Serve on a hot dish with your choice of sauce on the side.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Trout
Provides the main flesh that cooks through over the fire, flaking when done.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying the herbs and keeping the fish from drying out.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the surface while sealing in moisture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and the herbs.

The step that matters

Broiling and turning the trout. The fish is exposed to direct heat, so it can scorch quickly on the outside before the thickest part cooks through. Frequent turning and a well-greased grill help spread heat evenly and stop the skin and crumbs from sticking or burning.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, lemon, thyme, pepper, olive, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, lemon, thyme, pepper, olive, bread. 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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