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Grey Mullet Broiled

A simple broiled grey mullet seasoned with salt, oil, parsley, butter, and lemon juice.

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 ↓

Grey Mullet Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the gills and scales from the fish, and clean the inside.

  2. Wash and wipe the fish dry.

  3. Score the fish on each side a dozen times, about ¼ inch deep.

  4. Place the fish on a dish and sprinkle with a little coarse sea salt.

  5. Pour 3 tablespoons of oil over the fish.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the fish on a moderate clear fire for 10 minutes on each side.

  2. Serve the fish on a dish with parsley and butter, and drizzle with lemon juice.

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. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grey mullet
Provides the main flesh that cooks through and becomes flaky under direct heat.
Oil
Coats the fish so its surface stays moist and browns evenly under the broiler.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the finished fish for a softer mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savoury flavour of the fish and butter.

The step that matters

Broil the fish on each side. Scoring and oiling help heat reach the thick flesh evenly. Too little heat or too long a cook can dry the fish, while a clear, moderate fire lets the outside brown before the centre overcooks.

“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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