Name: Whole Sardines with Fresh Herbs and Crème Fraîche
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 4 pounds fresh sardines, cleaned, boned, and filleted; 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice; 2 tablespoons salt; 10 cloves garlic, thinly sliced crosswise; 6 shallots, thinly sliced; 1/2 cup virgin olive oil; Leaves from 6 sprigs thyme; Leaves from 6 sprigs oregano; 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice; 1 tablespoon honey; 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 cup crème fraîche or sour cream for garnish

Why it works: Thyme and oregano match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 791 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

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.

Thyme + oreganotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together791 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,973 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,476 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,108 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Garlic + oreganotop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,756 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, garlic, shallot, olive, thyme, oregano, honey):

Rosemarybetter flavor fit
Basilbetter flavor fit
Marjorambetter flavor fit
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, garlic, shallot, olive, thyme, oregano, honey. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

Whole Sardines with Fresh Herbs and Crème Fraîche