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Broiled Fish

A fish fillet seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, egg, and bread crumbs, then cooked on a grill or in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Broiled Fish

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Broiled Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the grill

  1. Rub a little coarse sea salt on the gridiron to prevent sticking.

  2. Prepare a clear fire.

  3. Score the fish.

Cook the fish

  1. Cook it slowly on one side.

  2. Turn the fish over.

  3. Cook the other side.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and melted butter.

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean the fish well and dry it.

  2. Rub salt over the fish.

  3. Let it hang for two days.

  4. Skin the fish.

Coat and finish

  1. Brush beaten egg over it.

  2. Coat the fish with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry, broil, or bake the fish as desired.

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.

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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together764 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish and firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the fish so the coating stays in place.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned coating when fried, broiled, or baked.
Melted butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the surface brown.

The step that matters

Cook slowly on one side before turning. Fish is delicate and sticks until its proteins set. Cooking slowly lets the fish release cleanly from the gridiron before it is turned. Salting the gridiron also helps prevent sticking.

“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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