Why it works: Butter and chervil work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 805 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Broiled Mackerel
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Split the mackerel down the back and clean them thoroughly.
Rub the inside and outside of the fish with butter warmed in a piece of muslin.
Grill and serve
Place the fish on a grill and add 1 ounce of butter mixed with chopped chervil into each fish.
Grill until the butter is melted and the fish is hot, then serve immediately.
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.
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Butter + cherviltop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together805 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mackerel
- Forms the main body of the dish and provides the rich, oily flesh that cooks through quickly under heat.
- Butter
- Adds moisture and fat, keeping the fish from drying out and carrying flavour over the surface.
- Chervil
- Adds a delicate, aromatic herbal flavour to the melted butter spooned into the fish.
The step that matters
Grill until the butter is melted and the fish is hot. Mackerel is oily and cooks fast, so overcooking dries the flesh. Stopping once the fish is hot and the butter has melted keeps it moist and tender.
“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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