Name: Escallopped Smoked Fish
Ingredients: smoked fish; cream sauce; bread crumbs

Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Escallopped Smoked Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

smoked fish
cream sauce
bread crumbs

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place the smoked fish in a baking dish.
Cover the fish with cream sauce and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Bake for a few minutes until heated through.

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.

Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,934 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cream + breadtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,789 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Smoked fish + saucetop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together9 recipes
Smoked fish + breadtop 36% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).