Name: Court-Bouillon À LA Creole
Ingredients: 1 lb. fish; lemon juice; flour; 2 Tbs. butter; 2 Tbs. oil; 2 whole cloves; 2 chopped onions; 1 garlic clove, crushed; 1 sliced carrot (optional); juice of 1 lime; hot pepper, to taste; pepper, bay leaf; parsley, thyme

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lemon + carrottop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,351 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + garlictop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,893 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish: Provides the main protein and flavour, poaching gently into the broth.
Butter: Carries the spices and vegetables and adds richness and browning flavour.
Oil: Carries the spices and vegetables and helps them brown without burning.
Onions: Soften and brown to build the sweet, savoury base of the broth.
Lime juice: Adds acidity that brightens the broth just before serving.

The step that matters

Poaching the fish gently. Gentle heat keeps the fish tender and moist. Boiling vigorously makes proteins contract and toughen, and can break the fish apart.

Swap the carrot

The recipe marks carrot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, lemon, flour, butter, clove, onion, garlic):

Leekfits better
Shallotfits better
Chivefits better
Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, lemon, flour, butter, clove, onion, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Salmon	100g cooked	208
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1

Court-Bouillon À LA Creole