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Broiled Spanish-mackerel

A simple broiled Spanish mackerel seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Broiled Spanish-mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the broiler.

  2. Clean and gut the Spanish mackerel.

  3. Season the fish with salt and pepper.

Broil and serve

  1. Place the fish on a broiler pan and dot with butter.

  2. Broil for about 5-7 minutes on each side until cooked through.

  3. Serve hot.

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

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Spanish mackerel + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together34 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

  3. Spanish mackerel + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together31 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Spanish mackerel
Forms the main body of the dish and cooks through to become flaky and tender under heat.
Butter
Adds moisture and richness, helping the surface brown and the fish stay juicy while broiling.

The step that matters

Broiling each side until cooked through. Fish is done when its thickest part flakes easily and reaches a safe internal temperature. Overcooking dries the flesh quickly, while undercooking leaves it unsafe, so checking doneness rather than relying only on the clock matters.

“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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