Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Broiling Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Hang the fish in a cool place for an hour if they are very wet.
Preheat the grill until hot but not burning.
Place the fish on the grill, thickest part over the hottest area.
Turn the fish often to ensure even cooking.
Remove bones from the fish and fill with pieces of fresh butter and a little salt.
Serve the fish hot, optionally adding lemon juice or ketchup.
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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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,889 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter):
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
- Applefits less well
- Peachfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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