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Broiled Mackerel or Herrings

Broiled mackerel or herring topped with a butter, parsley, salt, and pepper mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Broiled Mackerel or Herrings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash and dry the fish. Slit it open down the back and remove the insides.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil on a gridiron for 6 to 7 minutes, or less if using a herring.

  2. In a bowl, mix the parsley, butter, salt, and pepper together. Spread the mixture over the fish as soon as it is done and 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  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

Butter
Melts over the hot fish to add richness and moisture.
Mackerel or herring
Oily fish that stays moist under direct heat and carries the flavor of the dish.

The step that matters

Spread the butter mixture as soon as the fish is done. Hot fish absorbs and melts the butter evenly, so the herbs and seasoning spread through the flesh. If the fish cools first, the butter sits on the surface and the seasoning tastes less integrated.

“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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