Name: An Egg Sauce to Serve with Baked Fish
Ingredients: one cupful of water in which the fish has been boiled; one tablespoon of butter; one tablespoon of parsley chopped fine; two table- spoons of flour; one egg; three hard boiled eggs; 28 kiskaddon ^ burke groceries; 54 beth; salt; pepper

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds richness and flavour to the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the liquid.
Egg yolk: Helps bind and enrich the sauce as it is mixed in.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add body and texture to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour mixture into the fish water. Stirring while adding the liquid keeps the flour and butter from clumping, so the sauce cooks smooth rather than lumpy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, flour, egg, pepper):

Parsleythe original
Capersfits about as well
Nutmegfits about as well
Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, flour, egg, pepper. 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
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

An Egg Sauce to Serve with Baked Fish