Skip to main content
Main

Broiled Fish

A fish seasoned with cayenne pepper and coarse sea salt, broiled and topped with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Broiled Fish

Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Broiled Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat your grill or broiler.

  2. Grease the bars of the grill.

Cook and serve

  1. Season the fish with cayenne pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Broil the fish until it is a fine brown color.

  3. Transfer the fish to a dish and spread butter on top.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
The main protein, which firms and browns under direct high heat.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and gives moisture and flavor when spread over the hot fish.
Cayenne pepper
Adds gentle heat and aroma to the surface of the fish.

The step that matters

Broil the fish until it is a fine brown color. Fish cooks quickly under direct high heat, so it can dry out and toughen if left too long. Watch it closely and stop once the surface browns and the flesh turns opaque.

“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.

More broiled fish recipes

Sauce 5 See all 100 →

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipesFish CutletsFish Cutlets30 recipes