Name: Fish Balls for Breakfast
Ingredients: 1 cup cooked codfish, minced; 2 cups warm mashed potatoes; 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon pepper

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Balls for Breakfast

Ingredients

1 cup cooked codfish, minced
2 cups warm mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
¼ teaspoon pepper

Directions

Remove bones from the cooked codfish and mince it.
In a bowl, mix the minced codfish with warm mashed potatoes in a ratio of one-third codfish to two-thirds potatoes.
Season the mixture with butter and pepper, and mix until smooth.
If the mixture is dry, moisten it with a little water.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

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.

Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).