Name: Lebanese Fish Siddeah
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons olive oil; 1 kg white fish fillets; 3 medium onions or 450 g, chopped; ½ cup pine seeds or 75 g; 2 cups long grain white rice or 400 g; 2½ teaspoons ground cumin; ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon; 3½ cups water or 875 ml; 2 tablespoons lemon juice; 3 cubes of Chicken Bouillon

Why it works: Cumin and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,103 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. 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.

Cumin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Pine + cumintop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together73 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Pine + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together152 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Pine + lemontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together480 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,137 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

White fish fillets: Provides the main protein, which turns flaky and tender as it cooks gently in the stock.
Long grain white rice: Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the seasoned stock as it cooks.
Onions: Browning them deeply adds sweetness and a rich, savoury colour to the rice.
Pine seeds: Toasting them in the pot adds nutty aroma and a crunchy texture.
Ground cumin: Adds warm, earthy aroma that is bloomed briefly in the pot before the liquid goes in.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rice and balances the rich fried flavours.

The step that matters

Browning the onions and pine seeds. Onions must turn deep brown without burning. Gentle, steady heat and stirring caramelise their sugars for flavour, while scorched pieces turn bitter and can spoil the whole pot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, fish, pine, rice, cumin, cinnamon, lemon):

Spinachfits better
Capsicumfits better
Eggplantfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, fish, pine, rice, cumin, cinnamon, lemon. 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
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Pine	1 oz (28g)	191
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Seed	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0

Lebanese Fish Siddeah