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Grey Mullet Broiled

Broiled grey mullet seasoned with coarse sea salt, oil, parsley, butter, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Grey Mullet Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the gills and scales from the fish.

  2. Clean the inside of the fish.

  3. Wash and wipe the fish.

  4. Score the fish on each side a dozen times, about ¼ inch deep.

  5. Place the fish on a dish.

  6. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the fish.

  7. Pour 3 tablespoons of oil over the fish.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the fish on a moderate fire for 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Turn the fish halfway through the broiling.

  3. Serve the fish on a dish with parsley and butter mixed with a little lemon juice.

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. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Grey mullet
Is the main protein, cooked whole so its flesh stays moist under direct heat.
Oil
Coats the scored skin, conducting heat evenly and helping it brown and crisp under the broiler.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the finished sauce served with the fish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and the mild flavour of the fish.

The step that matters

Scoring the fish and turning it at the halfway point. Shallow cuts let heat penetrate the thick body so the centre cooks through as the outside browns. Turning halfway ensures both sides cook evenly and do not dry out or burn on the exposed side.

“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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