Name: Broiling Fish
Ingredients: fish; coarse sea salt; black pepper; melted butter; parsley; lemon

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Broiling Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Five minutes before broiling, light both burners.
Grease the broiling rack to prevent sticking.
Place the fish on the rack, skin side down.
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and black pepper, then baste with melted butter.
When the broiling oven is hot, slide the broiler in, six to eight inches from the flame.
Watch carefully and regulate the flame to prevent scorching.
When about half done, baste again with melted butter.
To check if done, use a silver fork.
Carefully loosen the fish from the broiler with a limber knife.
Remove to a heated platter, spread with softened butter, garnish with parsley and lemon, and serve.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).