Name: Steam Fish
Ingredients: Spring onions, finely sliced.; Ginger, finely sliced.; Chillie, finely sliced.; Soya sauce; Bean paste; Rice wine; Salt; Sesame oil; Several preserved plum, crushed.

Why it works: Onion and sesame match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,192 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Steam Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Steamed fish is often served with plain rice porridge and often made more saltish. When served with rice, cut down on beanpaste. Omit beanpaste if you prefer a more subtle flavour.
Clean fish, make serveral diagnol slits on both sides of the fish and rub a little salt all over. Let it stand for serveral minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, a little water and steam. Steam will condense and drip onto the fish adding to the sauce.
Alternatively, you can microwave the fish in a covered container with some additional water added.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

427Calories

6 gProtein

14 gFat

64 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Sauce	not in our table	0
Bean	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

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.

Onion + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Ginger + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,531 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ginger + plumtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together272 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,595 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Rice wine + sesametop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together244 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

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

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, ginger, sauce, rice wine, sesame):

Limefits better
Avocadofits better
Coconutfits better
Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, ginger, sauce, rice wine, sesame. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.