Name: Bluefish
Ingredients: bluefish; salt pork fat; eggs; bread crumbs; fish sauce

Why it works: Pork and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,371 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Bluefish

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the bluefish into steaks or pieces.
Fry in salt pork fat in a frying pan until golden brown.
Alternatively, egg and breadcrumb the pieces before frying.
Serve with your favorite fish sauce.

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.

Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,371 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + fish saucetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together257 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Bluefish + porktop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together22 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pork + fish saucetop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together184 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).