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Marinade for Meats and Fish

A simple olive oil and vinegar mixture seasoned with salt and pepper, used to marinate meats and fish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,297 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Marinade for Meats and Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the marinade

  1. Combine olive oil and vinegar in a bowl.

  2. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Marinate and serve

  1. Stir a small amount into the meat or fish.

  2. Let it marinate for two hours.

  3. Drain and add regular dressing just before serving.

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. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Adds richness and carries flavor, coating the surface of the meat or fish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and slightly softens the surface of the meat or fish.

The step that matters

Let it marinate for two hours.. The acid in the vinegar works on the surface proteins of the meat or fish. Leaving it too long can make fish mushy or leave meat with a soft, grainy texture, so timing matters.

“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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