Name: Fried Smelts
Ingredients: smelts; beaten egg; bread crumbs; cottolene (or vegetable oil); coarse sea salt; tartar sauce

Why it works: Smelt and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 103 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fried Smelts

Ingredients

Directions

Make a slight opening at the gills of the smelts.
Draw the insides out by pressing between your thumb and finger, starting at the tail.
Dip the smelts in beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.
Fry in very hot cottolene until golden brown.
Drain the fried smelts, dust with coarse sea salt, and serve hot with tartar sauce.

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.

Smelt + saucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together103 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,934 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Smelt + breadtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together150 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Smelt + eggtop 38% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together174 recipes