Name: Fish Balls
Ingredients: 1 cup dry codfish, picked fine; 3 cups potatoes, peeled and cut into thick slices; 2 tablespoons milk; ¼ teaspoon white pepper; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 egg, beaten (optional)

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 ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

1 cup dry codfish, picked fine
3 cups potatoes, peeled and cut into thick slices
2 tablespoons milk
¼ teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon butter
1 egg, beaten (optional)

Directions

Cook the codfish on top of the potatoes in a pot until the potatoes are done.
Drain and mash the fish and potatoes together, removing any bones from the fish.
Add milk, white pepper, and butter; mix thoroughly.
Let the mixture cool, then add the beaten egg if using.
Form into balls and cook as desired.

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).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).