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To Broil Fish

Broiled fish seasoned with salt, pepper, and flour, served with mustard, vinegar, Cornubian sauce, and melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Broil Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the fish into portions as you would for frying.

  2. Season the fish pieces with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Coat the fish pieces generously with flour.

  4. Rub a good amount of butter on the fish before broiling.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the fish over hot embers until cooked through.

  2. Serve with mustard, vinegar, Cornubian sauce, and additional melted butter if desired.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  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. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking into flaky, tender pieces.
Flour
Coats the surface so it can brown and helps form a slightly crisp exterior.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture, helping the fish stay juicy and brown under the heat.

The step that matters

Broil the fish over hot embers until cooked through. Fish is delicate and cooks quickly, so overcooking dries out the flesh and toughens it. Fish is done when the flesh turns opaque and flakes easily at the thickest point. Good heat and close attention keep it moist.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, flour, pepper, butter, vinegar, sauce):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Horseradishfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, pepper, butter, vinegar, sauce. 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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