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To Broil Fish

Broiled fish seasoned with vinegar, flour, salt, pepper, and optional oil, cooked over a hot fire.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,297 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

To Broil Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the fish.

  2. Rub it with vinegar or dry it.

  3. Dredge it with flour.

  4. Season oily fish with salt and pepper.

  5. Spread salad oil or butter on white fish.

  6. Soak fish in marinade before broiling.

  7. Split them or make notches for even cooking.

Broil

  1. Use a moderate fire for large fish.

  2. Cook small fish whole over a clear hot fire.

  3. Grease the gridiron well before placing the fish on it.

  4. Cook the flesh side first until golden brown.

  5. Turn to broil the skin side until crisp.

  6. Hold a platter over the fish.

  7. Separate any sticking parts.

  8. Flip the gridiron.

  9. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  10. Spread a little butter.

  11. Place in the oven briefly to soak in.

  12. Serve with a Maitre d'hôtel or other good sauce.

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. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main flesh that cooks through and browns under the broiler.
Flour
Dries the fish surface so it browns and crisps rather than steaming.
Salad oil or butter
Adds fat that keeps the surface from drying and helps it brown.
Vinegar
Acidity firms the flesh surface slightly before cooking.

The step that matters

Grease the gridiron well before placing the fish on it.. Fish proteins bond to hot bars and tear when moved. A well-greased grid releases the flesh cleanly and keeps the skin intact.

“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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