Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 29,030 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
The recipe
6 servingsIngredients
Contains: milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and grease a 2-quart baking dish.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the minced onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes until softened.
Sprinkle the flour over the onion mixture and stir for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in the warm milk and simmer, stirring, until thickened, about 3 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the white Cheddar until melted. Season with the salt and black pepper, adding more milk if the sauce is too thick.
Spread the thawed, well-drained spinach over the bottom of the baking dish. Scatter the cod chunks evenly on top and pour the cheese sauce over them.
Spread the mashed potatoes over the top, then sprinkle with the yellow Cheddar cheese.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the fish flakes easily and is opaque in the center, reaching 145°F (63°C), and the top is golden and bubbling.
Let the pie rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together29,030 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Spinach + garlictop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).
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Butter + milktop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + cheddar cheesetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,434 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Spinach + peppertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,400 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the spinach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, cheddar cheese, onion, pepper, garlic):
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Chivebetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Spinachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, cheddar cheese, onion, pepper, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
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