Name: Baked Tilapia with White Wine
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients: 2 fresh whole tilapia , approximately 8–10 oz each, gutted and descaled; ¼ pint medium white wine; 1–2 cloves garlic , finely chopped; 4 tablespoons freshly-chopped mixed herbs; 6 salad onions , diagonally sliced; Salt; Freshly-ground black pepper; ½ oz butter; 1 teaspoon cornstarch , blended with a little cold water; 2 tablespoons creme fraiche

Why it works: Garlic and onion 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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Tilapia: Forms the main body of the dish and cooks gently in the trapped steam under foil.
White wine: Adds moisture and acidity, and its juices form the base of the sauce.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, enriching the juices as the fish bakes.
Cornstarch: Thickens the pan juices into a glossy sauce when simmered.
Creme fraiche: Adds richness and a mild tang that rounds out the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering the thickened sauce. Cornstarch must be stirred into the juices and simmered briefly to activate its thickening; without enough heat and time it stays thin and cloudy-tasting, and adding creme fraiche to a boiling sauce can cause it to split.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, garlic, onion, pepper, butter):

Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Tarragonfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, garlic, onion, pepper, butter. 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
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Salad	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0

Baked Tilapia with White Wine