Why it works: Milk and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Fish Diet
Ingredients
Directions
Serve ½ pint of milk for breakfast.
Cook 8 oz. of your choice of fish and serve with 1 lb. of potatoes for dinner.
Prepare 1 pint of gruel for supper.
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.
-
Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
-
Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Milk + fishtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together134 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Adds moisture and a little richness to the breakfast drink.
- Fish
- Provides the main protein of the dinner.
- Potatoes
- Adds starchy bulk to make the dinner more filling.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, fish):
- Potatothe original
- Tomatofits about as well
- Capsicumfits less well
- Asparagusfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, fish. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Brown Bread461 recipes
Potato Croquettes255 recipes
Fried Fish120 recipes
Fish Croquettes81 recipes