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Broiled Mackerel

Broiled mackerel seasoned with salt, oil, fennel, parsley, lemon juice, and pepper, served with a fennel‑parsley‑lemon drizzle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Broiled Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Empty the fish without washing it and wipe it well.

  2. Slit open the back and sprinkle coarse sea salt over it.

  3. Brush the fish with oil, lard, or dripping to prevent sticking.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the fish until cooked through.

  2. In a bowl, mix dripping with chopped fennel, parsley, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

  3. Serve the fish on a hot dish and spread the mixture over it.

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. Fennel + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together625 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Fennel + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together723 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 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

Mackerel
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through under direct heat to become flaky and tender.
Oil, lard, or dripping
Coats the skin to prevent sticking and helps it brown under the broiler.
Fennel
Adds a fresh, aromatic anise flavour to the herb mixture spread over the fish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich fish and the fat in the herb mixture.

The step that matters

Broil the fish until cooked through. Under a broiler the surface can scorch before the thick center sets. Watch closely and check the flesh at its thickest point, since fish is cooked when it turns opaque and flakes easily.

Swap the fennel

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, lemon, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Fennelthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, lemon, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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