Name: Fish Dinner
Ingredients: 12 ounces fresh fish or 6 ounces dried fish; 1 pound potatoes; 6 ounces bread (with Rate III diet) or 8 ounces bread (with Rate IV diet)

Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Fish Dinner

Ingredients

12 ounces fresh fish or 6 ounces dried fish
1 pound potatoes
6 ounces bread (with Rate III diet) or 8 ounces bread (with Rate IV diet)

Directions

Prepare 12 ounces of fresh fish or 6 ounces of dried fish.
Boil or steam 1 pound of potatoes until tender.
Serve the fish with the potatoes and 6 ounces of bread for Rate III diet or 8 ounces for Rate IV diet.

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.

Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together134 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together434 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish: Provides the main protein of the meal.
Potatoes: Supply starch and bulk, becoming soft and tender when boiled or steamed.
Bread: Adds starch and bulk to make the meal more filling alongside the fish and potatoes.