Name: Mackerel Pie
Ingredients: pie crust (for an ordinary meat pie); mackerel (enough to fill the dish); parsley (a little); pepper (to taste); coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt', a little); butter (a little)

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mackerel Pie

Ingredients

pie crust (for an ordinary meat pie)
mackerel (enough to fill the dish)
parsley (a little)
pepper (to taste)
coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt', a little)
butter (a little)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Make a pie crust similar to that for an ordinary meat pie.
Cut the mackerel into pieces and place them in the dish.
Add a little parsley, pepper, salt, and butter.

Bake

Cover the dish with the pie crust.
Bake for about 45 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + parsleytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,040 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mackerel: Forms the filling and provides the main flavor and protein of the pie.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the filling as it melts during baking.
Pie crust: Encloses the filling, holding in moisture while the pie bakes.