Name: Catfish Pepper Soup
Ingredients: Fresh catfish or conger eel; Seasoning cubes; Onion , quartered; Habanero pepper, chopped; Ehu seeds, peeled and ground; Scent leaves or parsley , washed and torn into pieces; Salt

Why it works: Catfish and pepper work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and 215 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Clean the catfish, and slice it into 1-inch thick pieces.
Boil some water and pour it over the fish chunks, stirring constantly. The hot water toughens the fish skin, preventing it from falling apart during cooking.
Place the fish pieces in a pot with just enough water to cover them. Add the seasoning cubes, onion chunks, and habanero pepper. Bring to a boil.
Add the ground ehu and scent leaves, and continue to simmer until the fish is done.
Season with salt and pepper, and leave to simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove the onion pieces, and serve hot.
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Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Catfish + peppertop 17% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together215 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together175 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Onion + parsleytop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together25,834 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together68,463 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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (catfish, pepper, parsley):

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Carrotbetter flavor fit
Okraabout as good a flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against catfish, pepper, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).