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Broiled Mackerel, Maitre d'Hotel Sauce

Broiled mackerel served over mashed potatoes, topped with Maitre d'Hôtel sauce and garnished with lettuce, lemon slices, and cucumbers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Broiled Mackerel, Maitre d'Hotel Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut off the fins, split open the mackerel, dress it, and remove the backbone.

  2. Brush the fish with melted butter or oil.

  3. Broil the fish in a well-oiled broiler over low heat.

Plate and serve

  1. Prepare a platform of hot mashed potatoes on a serving platter.

  2. Place the broiled fish on the mashed potatoes.

  3. Spread partly melted Maitre d'Hôtel sauce over the fish.

  4. Garnish with lettuce and lemon slices.

  5. Serve with sliced cucumbers.

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. Lettuce + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Potato + lettucetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Mackerel
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the rich, oily flesh that carries the flavour.
Melted butter or oil
Coats the fish so its surface stays moist and browns evenly under the broiler.
Mashed potatoes
Creates a soft, starchy base that holds the fish and absorbs its juices.

The step that matters

Broil over low heat in a well-oiled broiler. Low heat cooks the thick fish through gently before its surface over-browns or dries out. Oiling the broiler stops the delicate skin and flesh from sticking and tearing when turned or lifted.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, sauce, potato, lettuce, cucumber):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, sauce, potato, lettuce, cucumber. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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