Name: Soles with Mushrooms
Ingredients: 1 pint of milk; 1 pint of water; 1 oz. butter; 1 oz. coarse sea salt; a little lemon juice; 2 middling-sized soles

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Soles with Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Clean the soles, but do not skin them.
Place the soles in a fish kettle with the milk, water, butter, salt, and lemon juice.
Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, then let it simmer for about 7 minutes until the soles are cooked.
Remove the soles and drain them well on a cloth.
Transfer the soles to a hot dish and pour a good mushroom sauce over them.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).