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Broiled Mackerel

A broiled mackerel served with sliced cucumbers, onions, corn pone, Saratoga chips, chocolate, and coffee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,497 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells buttery, creamy. The science ↓

Broiled Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the broiler.

  2. Clean and gut the mackerel.

  3. Place the mackerel on a broiler pan.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the mackerel until cooked through, about 5-7 minutes per side.

  2. Serve with sliced cucumbers and onions.

  3. Accompany with corn pone and Saratoga chips.

  4. Enjoy with chocolate and coffee.

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. Chocolate + coffeetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

  2. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together387 recipes

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

  4. Onion + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,205 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Corn + coffeetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together247 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

Mackerel
Is the main protein, cooked through under direct heat until the flesh turns opaque and flakes.

The step that matters

Broil the mackerel until cooked through. Fish is done quickly and easily overcooked under high heat, which dries the flesh. Checking for opaque, flaking flesh at the thickest part helps prevent this.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, corn, chocolate, coffee):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, corn, chocolate, coffee. 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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