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Broiled Fish

Fish is broiled until browned, then served with Hollandaise or tomato sauce and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Broiled Fish

Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Broiled Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the broiler and grease the double broiler with butter or salt pork to prevent sticking.

Cook the fish

  1. Place the fish in the broiler, skin side down, and cook until browned, about 12 to 30 minutes depending on the type and thickness of the fish.

  2. If the fish is thick, finish cooking in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) after browning.

Serve

  1. Carefully transfer the cooked fish to a serving platter, avoiding breaking it.

  2. Serve with Hollandaise sauce or tomato sauce and garnish with parsley.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Salmon + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + parsleytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,693 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Young cod, mackerel, salmon, or large trout
Forms the main body of the dish; its flesh cooks to flaky tenderness under direct heat.
Butter or salt pork
Greases the broiler pan so the fish does not stick and the skin browns evenly.

The step that matters

Placing the fish skin side down under the broiler. Direct heat can dry or burn thin flesh quickly, and fish this thick cooks unevenly. Keeping the skin side down shields the delicate flesh while the top browns, and finishing in the oven helps thick pieces cook through without scorching.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, butter, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, 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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