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Broiled Trout

A trout fillet seasoned with oil, salt, pepper, and butter, broiled over a fire and served with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Broiled Trout

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the trout

  1. Scrape off the scales and trim the fins.

  2. Wash the trout in cold salt water, then dry it thoroughly with a cloth.

  3. Score the trout three times on each side and place it on a dish.

  4. Season the salad oil with salt and pepper and pour the seasoned oil over the fish.

  5. Let it soak for at least 30 minutes, turning occasionally.

Broil and serve

  1. Oil the grill bars.

  2. If possible, lay the fish on straws.

  3. Broil the trout over a clear fire for about 15 minutes.

  4. Carefully transfer the trout to a hot dish, add lumps of maitre-d’hotel butter, and 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  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

Trout
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through to flaky flesh under direct heat.
Salad oil
Coats the fish to add moisture and help prevent it from drying or sticking under the broiler.
Maitre-d’hotel butter
Melts over the hot fish, adding richness and fat for flavour and moistness.

The step that matters

Broil over a clear fire. Fish is delicate and cooks quickly; a clear, steady heat with oiled bars cooks it through while keeping the skin from sticking and tearing. Too much flame or smoke can char the outside before the centre is done.

“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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