Name: Bahamas Fish Soup
Ingredients: 4 cup Water; 1 tsp Salt; 2 sm Fresh or pickled Tabasco peppers, Fresh preferred, red or green minced; 1/4 tsp Ground Black Pepper; 1 med Onion, thinly sliced; 2 med Potatoes,peeled halved and cut into 1/2, inch dice; 4 slc Bacon; 1 1/2 lb White meat fish, Boneless filet of Halibut, Sea bass or etc..; 1 tsp Butter, optional; 1/2 cup Sliced carrots, optional/; 1/2 cup Sliced celery, optional

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Soften into tender pieces that thicken the broth slightly and give the soup body.
White fish: Provides the main protein, turning firm and opaque as it cooks gently in the broth.
Bacon: Adds smoky, savory fat that flavors the broth as it cooks.
Onion: Releases sweetness and aromatic depth into the broth as it simmers.
Fresh tabasco peppers: Supply heat and a sharp, bright pepper flavor to the soup.

The step that matters

Simmer the fish gently until just cooked. Fish proteins set and turn opaque at moderate heat, and a hard boil makes them tough and flaky apart. Reducing the heat before adding the fish keeps the pieces tender and intact.

Swap the carrot

The recipe marks carrot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, onion, potato, meat, butter, celery):

Carrotthe original
Mustardfits about as well
Leekfits less well
Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, potato, meat, butter, celery. 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
Salmon	100g cooked	208
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Halibut	100g cooked	140
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Tabasco Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Meat	not in our table	0

Bahamas Fish Soup