Why it works: Grapefruit and sesame work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and 7 recipes mention both. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 2Ingredients
Contains: soy, fish, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Peel the grapefruit and cut out the sections, removing all membranes. Squeeze any juice from the membranes into a small bowl and reserve it. Toss the sections with the sugar and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C) and line a baking dish or sheet pan with foil.
Mix the grated ginger, soy sauce, and about half of the sesame seed oil in a small bowl.
Toss the sliced fennel with the remaining sesame seed oil and spread it in the baking dish.
Place the salmon fillets on top of the fennel and spoon the ginger and soy mixture over the fish.
Bake for about 6 minutes, until the thickest part of the salmon reaches 145°F (63°C) and the flesh flakes easily.
Stir the reserved grapefruit juice into the pan juices. Serve the salmon and fennel with the sugared grapefruit sections spooned over the top.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Grapefruit + sesametop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Grapefruit + fenneltop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together18 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Ginger + sesametop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,531 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Grapefruit + gingertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together38 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Fennel + gingertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together253 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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