Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Broiled Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Split the fish in half.
Broil it over live coals, ensuring it does not burn or smoke.
Once done, place it on a dish and butter it while hot.
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.
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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 through to a flaky texture over the coals.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture when spread over the hot fish, where it melts into the flesh.
The step that matters
Broil without burning or smoking. Live coals can scorch the outside before the thick flesh cooks through. Steady, moderate heat and watching the fish keep the surface from charring and bitter smoke from clinging to it.
“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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