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Broiled Shad, Bluefish or Mackerel

Broiled fish seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked on a buttered grill.

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

Broiled Shad, Bluefish or Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash, wipe, and split the fish.

  2. Sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper.

  3. Place the fish on a buttered grill.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil until the first side is brown, about 10 minutes.

  2. Turn the fish and broil the other side until cooked, about 10 more minutes.

  3. Serve with butter or sauces like maitre d’hotel, tartare, or tomato 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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  2. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 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

Fish
Provides the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks through.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps keep the fish from sticking to the grill.

The step that matters

Turning the fish. Broiling browns the first side quickly, so turning it at the right moment helps the second side cook through without drying out or burning. Fish is delicate and flakes easily, so it should be turned gently.

“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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