Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Broiled Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the fish thoroughly and wipe it dry.
Split the fish down the middle and season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Broil
Mix olive oil and Worcestershire sauce to make a gravy, then baste the fish with it.
Secure the fish in a broiler and place it over live coals.
Keep turning and basting the fish for about 20 minutes until cooked through.
Serve
Serve with butter and lemon wedges.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,922 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,263 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + olivetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together279 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Olive oil
- Carries flavour and keeps the fish moist while it cooks over direct heat.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Adds savoury, tangy depth to the basting gravy and helps the surface brown.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat to the finished fish at serving.
The step that matters
Keep turning and basting the fish. Over live coals the thin fish can dry out or scorch quickly. Regular turning spreads heat evenly, and basting with the oil and Worcestershire mixture keeps the surface moist while it browns.
“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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