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Whiting, Broiled

Broiled whiting fish seasoned, floured, and cooked on a greased gridiron, served with butter.

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

Whiting, Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash the whiting in salted water.

  2. Split the whiting open.

  3. Dry the fish thoroughly.

  4. Dip the fish in oil.

  5. Sprinkle the fish with seasoning.

  6. Dredge the fish with flour.

Broil and serve

  1. Lay the fish on a greased gridiron.

  2. Broil the fish lightly on both sides.

  3. Place the fish on a hot dish.

  4. Add a pat of butter on each fish.

  5. Serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Whiting + fishtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Whiting + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Whiting + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Whiting fish
The main protein, which cooks quickly and turns flaky when broiled.
Oil
Coats the surface so the fish does not stick and browns evenly under heat.
Flour
Forms a light coating that helps the surface brown and crisp under the broiler.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky finish to the fish as it is served.

The step that matters

Dry the fish thoroughly. Surface moisture turns to steam under the broiler, which blocks browning and can make the flour coating gummy. Drying before oil and flour helps the fish brown and crisp.

“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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