Why it works: Parsley and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,445 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Baked Shad
Ingredients
Directions
Make a dressing by mixing bread crumbs, onion, parsley, butter, suet, pepper, salt, sage, and beaten egg. Wet with milk.
Stuff the fish with the dressing and sew or tie it securely.
Place the fish in a pan with some hot water.
Lay pieces of salt pork on top and season with pepper and salt.
Bake the fish, basting very often.
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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Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,445 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, parsley, butter, pepper, sage, egg, milk):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parsley, butter, pepper, sage, egg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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