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Boiled Spanish Mackerel

A boiled Spanish mackerel seasoned with sea salt, served with melted butter and sliced lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Boiled Spanish Mackerel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Open the fish along the back and remove the backbone.

  2. Wash the fish and dry it well with a towel.

Cook and serve

  1. Salt the fish and place it on a grill over a clear fire.

  2. Cook flesh side down until browned, then turn it over.

  3. Serve with melted butter and sliced lemon.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Spanish mackerel + lemontop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together32 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

  3. Spanish mackerel + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together34 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Spanish mackerel
Forms the main body of the dish, with its flesh cooking to firm texture over the fire.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture to the cooked fish at serving.

The step that matters

Cook flesh side down until browned, then turn it over. Starting flesh side down over direct heat browns the cut surface and sets it before turning. Turning too early can tear the fish and stop the surface from browning properly.

“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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