Name: Cremes of John Dory with Prawn Sauce
Ingredients: 3 medium John Dory fish; Butter for greasing; Sherry (1 glass); Second stock (½ cup)

Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cremes of John Dory with Prawn Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

3 medium John Dory fish
Butter for greasing
Sherry (1 glass)
Second stock (½ cup)

Directions

The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cut the fillets from the John Dory and pound the white flesh.
Pass the pounded flesh through a wire sieve.
Prepare the prawn sauce as described in the sauce list.
Stew the bones of the John Dory to extract their essence.
Grease a sauté pan with butter and place the fillets in it.
Rub a little butter on each fish fillet.
Add sherry and second stock to the pan.
Cover with a round of buttered paper.
Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for about 15 minutes, basting several times.
If any liquid remains, pour it over the fish before serving.

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.

Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Fish + sherrytop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together104 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).