Name: Broiled Bluefish
Ingredients: Bluefish; Salt; Pepper; Butter

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 Bluefish

Ingredients

Bluefish
Salt
Pepper
Butter

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.

Preheat the broiler.
Clean and prepare the bluefish.
Season the fish with salt and pepper.
Place the fish on a broiler pan and dot with butter.
Broil for about 5-7 minutes on each side, or until cooked through.

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.

Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Bluefish + buttertop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together49 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Bluefish + peppertop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together54 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).