Name: Whitings
Ingredients: large whitings; coarse sea salt; egg; bread crumbs; butter

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Whitings

Ingredients

Directions

Remove gills, eyes, tails, and blood from the whitings.
Wipe them dry and sprinkle salt inside the bodies and eyes.
Lay them on a board for a while, then hang in a dry place for 3-4 days.
Skin the whitings and rub them with egg, then coat with bread crumbs.
Place them before the fire and baste with butter until browned.
Serve with egg 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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Whiting + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together510 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Whiting + breadtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together190 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).