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Grilled Fish

A fish grilled over coals, finished with butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Grilled Fish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Preheat a grill over a bright fire of coals.

  2. Place the fish on the grill and cook until both sides are nicely browned.

  3. Transfer the fish to a hot dish.

  4. Top with a bit of butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt to taste.

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

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

  2. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + peppertop 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

Fish
Is the main item cooked, browning on the grill while its flesh cooks through.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the hot fish as it is served.

The step that matters

Cooking the fish until both sides are nicely browned. Browning comes from direct heat on the surface, which needs a hot, well-established fire. Cooking too cool or too briefly leaves the skin pale and sticky, while too long dries the flesh. Turning once at the right moment gives an even crust and moist interior.

“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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