Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Halibut
Ingredients
Directions
Wash and salt the fish, then place it on ice.
Wipe the fish thoroughly dry.
Dip the fish in flour and shake off the excess.
Dip the floured fish in the beaten egg.
Heat olive oil in a skillet until it boils, covering the bottom well.
Fry the fish until both sides are browned.
Lift the fish carefully onto paper to absorb excess oil.
Transfer to a heated platter before serving and garnish.
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.
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + olivetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,871 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + olivetop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,340 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
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