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Broiled Halibut

Broiled halibut steaks coated in beaten egg and grated cracker, served with maitre d'hotel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Broiled Halibut

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the halibut steaks with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Dip each steak into the beaten egg, then coat with grated cracker.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the steaks until they are nicely browned.

  2. Serve with maitre d'hotel sauce.

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 + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

  3. Egg + saucetop 39% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,895 recipes

Pepper and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut steaks
The main protein, which is cooked through while its coating browns.
Beaten egg
Binds the grated cracker coating to the fish so it adheres during frying.
Grated cracker
Forms a crisp, browned coating that protects the fish during frying.
Maitre d'hotel sauce
Adds a rich, buttery, herbed flavour that contrasts with the crisp coating.

The step that matters

Fry the steaks until nicely browned. The coating must brown without the fish drying out. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction at the surface, so the pan should be hot enough to brown the crust while the thick steak cooks through gently.

“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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