Why it works: Vinegar and olive 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 ↓
To Broil Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean the fish.
Rub the fish with vinegar or dry it and dredge it with flour.
Season oily fish with salt and pepper.
For white fish, spread salad oil or butter over it.
Optionally marinate the fish in olive oil flavored with spices.
Grease the gridiron well.
Broil
For large fish, cook over moderate heat.
For small fish, use a hot fire and cook whole.
Cook the flesh side first until golden brown.
Turn to crisp the skin side.
To turn the fish, hold a platter over it.
Separate any sticking parts with a knife.
Flip the gridiron.
Finish and serve
Once cooked, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Spread a little butter.
Briefly place in the oven to soak in.
Serve with a good sauce if desired.
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.
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Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,297 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
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Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,263 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 to flaky, tender flesh with a crisp skin.
- Vinegar
- Rubbed on the fish, it adds a slight sharpness that brightens the mild flavor of the flesh.
- Flour
- Dredging creates a dry coating that helps the skin brown and crisp during broiling.
- Salad oil or butter
- Spread over white fish, it adds moisture and fat that keep the lean flesh from drying out.
- Olive oil
- Used as an optional marinade base that carries spice flavor into the fish and adds richness.
The step that matters
Cook the flesh side first until golden brown. Fish sticks to hot metal until its proteins set and release, so the flesh side should be well greased and cooked until it lifts cleanly before turning. Turning too early tears the fish and leaves the skin stuck to the grid.
“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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