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Grilled Red Mullets

Red mullets grilled with butter or sweet oil, served with parsley butter, lemon, and fresh parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Grilled Red Mullets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Have the mullets cleaned by the fishmonger and wipe them dry.

  2. Dip the mullets in seasoned flour.

  3. Brush the mullets with melted butter or sweet oil.

Grill and serve

  1. Place them on a well-greased grill.

  2. Grill over a clear fire for about 5 minutes on each side, depending on size.

  3. Serve hot.

  4. Top with melted butter mixed with chopped parsley.

  5. Garnish with lemon and parsley.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

Butter and flour 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

Red mullets
The main fish; its firm flesh holds together on the grill while the skin crisps.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the coating brown and keeping the fish moist.
Seasoned flour
Forms a thin coating that browns on the grill and helps seal in moisture.

The step that matters

Grilling the mullets. Fish cooks quickly and can dry out or stick. A well-greased grill and a clear, steady fire help the skin release cleanly and the flesh cook through without burning the flour coating.

“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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