Name: Economical Fish Stew
Ingredients: 3 to 4 pounds of hake, ling, skate, or haddock; 1 pound of fish cuttings or trimmings; 2 ounces of lard; 2 to 3 onions, sliced; 2 quarts of water; parsley or other green herbs; salt; pepper

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 ↓

Economical Fish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the fish from the bones and pound the bones.
Set aside the bones and any head portions with the cuttings.

Make the stew

In a saucepan, heat the lard and fry the sliced onions until brown.
Add the water, pounded bones, cuttings, parsley, salt, and pepper to the saucepan.
Let the mixture simmer for three hours.

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).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Haddock + fishtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together257 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,341 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

Hake, ling, skate, or haddock: Provides the main body of the stew, flaking into the broth as it cooks.
Fish cuttings or trimmings: Add concentrated fish flavour to the broth as they simmer.
Lard: Carries the frying flavour of the onions and adds richness to the broth.
Onions: Browning in the lard builds sweetness and savoury depth into the stew.