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Broiled Salt Mackerel

Broiled salt mackerel served with hot thin cream, pepper, parsley, and potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Broiled Salt Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the salt mackerel thoroughly and soak it skin side up in water overnight.

  2. Drain and dry the mackerel with a towel.

Broil

  1. Brush the mackerel with melted butter or olive oil and broil it skin side down in a greased broiler.

  2. Baste the mackerel twice with melted butter or oil.

Serve

  1. Remove the mackerel to a hot serving platter and pour hot thin cream over it.

  2. Sprinkle with pepper and finely chopped parsley, and serve with steamed or baked potatoes.

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. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 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

Salt mackerel
Is the main protein; soaking first draws out salt so the flesh tastes milder.
Melted butter or olive oil
Adds fat that helps the skin brown and keeps the surface from drying under the broiler.
Hot thin cream
Adds richness and moisture when poured over the cooked fish.

The step that matters

Basting during broiling. Fish dries out quickly under high direct heat. Basting with fat during broiling keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, pepper, parsley):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, pepper, parsley. 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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