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To Broil Mackerel

Broiled mackerel seasoned with salt, butter, pepper, 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 and wipe them dry with a cloth.

  2. Split the mackerel open and rub them with coarse sea salt.

  3. Prepare bright coals on the hearth and grease a gridiron.

Broil and serve

  1. Lay the mackerel on the gridiron and broil them carefully, turning when one side is done.

  2. Place the cooked mackerel on a hot dish.

  3. Butter and pepper the mackerel.

  4. Garnish with minced parsley mixed with butter, 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
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the rich, oily flesh that cooks through over the fire.
Butter
Adds moisture and richness to the fish as it finishes and carries flavor across the surface.

The step that matters

Broil the mackerel carefully, turning once. Mackerel is oily and delicate, so it can dry or break apart over direct heat. Turning only when one side is set helps the flesh hold together and cook evenly.

“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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