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Pairing

Mace + Fish

A good pairing. Cooks put them together in 586 recipes, and they share 6 flavor molecules: the top 25% of all ingredient pairs.

Smell alikelow
Cooked together586 recipes
Ranktop 25% of pairs
Try them in the pairing tool Mace Fish
28mace only 6shared 152fish only Mace · 34 Fish · 158
Circle size = number of flavor molecules on record. Overlap = molecules they share.

Do mace and fish go together?

Yes. 586 recipes in our collection combine them, and they share 6 flavor molecules. That places them in the top 25% of every ingredient pair we score.

Why they work

They overlap on 6 flavor molecules: 18% of mace's 34. Among the shared key aromas are alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine) and linalool (floral, citrus). Most of what they share is background chemistry many foods carry, so the overlap does little for the smell.

What each one brings

mace

The herbal side. Herbal notes make up 31% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 6% for fish. It carries 28 molecules fish doesn't have.

fish

The fresh, green side. Green notes make up 20% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 6% for mace. It carries 152 molecules mace doesn't have.

Add a third ingredient

  • Nutmeg: the best fit for both, top 4% of pairs with mace, top 23% with fish.
  • Clove: top 6% of pairs with mace, top 25% with fish.
  • Common carp: top 24% of pairs with mace, top 7% with fish.
  • Ginger: top 11% of pairs with mace, top 17% with fish.

Ranked by the average of its two pairing scores. Only foods used in at least 100 recipes are suggested.

Recipes with mace and fish

We have no browsable recipe that lists both mace and fish.

Can you swap one for the other?

Not really. Each has a lot the other lacks: mace has 28 molecules fish doesn't, and fish has 152 that mace doesn't. Treat them as partners, not stand-ins. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

All 6 shared molecules

See every shared molecule grouped by chemical class, with key aromas marked, plus the 28 only in mace and the 152 only in fish.

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Mace and fish questions

Do mace and fish go together?

A good pairing. Cooks put them together in 586 recipes, and they share 6 flavor molecules: the top 25% of all ingredient pairs.

Why do mace and fish taste good together?

They overlap on 6 flavor molecules: 18% of mace's 34. Among the shared key aromas are alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine) and linalool (floral, citrus). Most of what they share is background chemistry many foods carry, so the overlap does little for the smell.

What goes with mace and fish?

Nutmeg is the best third ingredient: top 4% of pairs with mace and top 23% with fish. Clove and common carp also fit both.

Can I use fish instead of mace?

Not really. Each has a lot the other lacks: mace has 28 molecules fish doesn't, and fish has 152 that mace doesn't. Treat them as partners, not stand-ins. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

Compare other ingredients

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Two ingredients gives the full side-by-side breakdown; add a third to see a similarity matrix across all of them (up to 6).

Ranks compare this pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. Molecule counts are what the studies and databases we aggregate have reported for each ingredient: a measure of coverage, not a full census. How we score pairs

Cite this analysis
Plain text
Compound Kitchen (2026). Compound similarity analysis: Mace vs Fish. https://compkitchen.com/compare/mace-vs-fish. Accessed 2026-11-04.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compare_compound_similarity_analysis_mace_vs_fish_2026,
  title  = {Compound similarity analysis: Mace vs Fish},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compare/mace-vs-fish},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-04}
}

Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.