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Broiled Mackerel

A mackerel fillet broiled and seasoned with pepper, butter, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Broiled Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the mackerel overnight with the open side down.

  2. In the morning, rinse the fish and suspend it head down to drain.

Broil and serve

  1. Place the fish in a wire broiler over a hot bed of coals, turning often.

  2. Remove the fish to a hot platter, season with pepper and butter, 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.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  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

Mackerel
Is the main protein; its oily flesh stays moist and tender when broiled over coals.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour over the fish once it is served.

The step that matters

Turning the fish over a hot bed of coals. Frequent turning exposes each side to heat evenly, so the skin and flesh cook without charring on one side and leaving the other raw. The fish is cooked when the flesh flakes easily.

“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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