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Grilled Fish

A fish fillet or cutlet seasoned with pepper, salt, and lemon juice, wrapped in paper and grilled or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Grilled Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Brush a piece of parchment paper with salad oil or butter.

  2. Place the fish fillet or cutlet inside the paper.

  3. Sprinkle with pepper, coarse sea salt, and lemon juice.

  4. Fold the paper over the fish securely.

Cook and serve

  1. Grill slowly over a clear but not fierce fire, turning the paper over once.

  2. Alternatively, place the folded fish on a baking tin and cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 15 minutes.

  3. Serve the fish in the paper to retain the essence.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

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

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

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 gently inside the paper to stay moist and tender.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the fish.

The step that matters

Grill slowly over a clear but not fierce fire. Fierce heat can scorch the paper and dry or toughen the fish before its center cooks through. Gentle, steady heat cooks the fish evenly while the paper steams it and keeps it moist.

“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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