Name: White Sauce for Fish
Ingredients: 2 cups cream sauce; ½ tablespoon lemon juice; 3 to 4 olives, finely chopped

Why it works: Lemon and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,922 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

White Sauce for Fish

Ingredients

2 cups cream sauce
½ tablespoon lemon juice
3 to 4 olives, finely chopped

Directions

Prepare a cream sauce.
Add ½ tablespoon of lemon juice to the sauce.
Stir in 3 to 4 finely chopped olives.

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.

Lemon + olivetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,922 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + olivetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,568 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cream + olivetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,206 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Sauce + lemontop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,598 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).