Why it works: Butter and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Broiled Halibut
Ingredients
Directions
Grease the gridiron with a little butter.
Place the halibut on it and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Cook one side over clear coals for 10 minutes.
Turn the halibut and cook the other side for another 10 minutes.
Warm the serving dish, place the fish on it, and season with pepper and butter.
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 + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Halibut
- Is the main protein; its flesh firms and turns opaque as it cooks over the coals.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, and helps keep the fish from sticking to the gridiron.
The step that matters
Turning the halibut. Halibut is lean and flakes apart easily. Turning it once, with the first side set, lets it hold together and cook through evenly without drying out.
“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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