Name: Fresh Fish, Salt Fish, Oysters, Etc
Ingredients: 1 fish; sour milk; salt pork fat; oysters

Why it works: Fish and oyster work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 496 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fresh Fish, Salt Fish, Oysters, Etc

Ingredients

1 fish
sour milk
salt pork fat
oysters

Directions

Clean the fish and wipe it dry, especially if you plan to broil it.
Broil the fish on a greased wire broiler over clear coals, starting with the fleshy side down.
Soak salt fish in sour milk, skin side up, to help remove the salt.
When baking fish, use minimal moisture for a dry, flaky texture.
For frying oysters, ensure they are dry by draining and placing them on a cloth with another cloth on top to absorb moisture.
Fry the fish in hot salt pork fat for delicious results.

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.

Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together496 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together668 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Milk + porktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,386 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Pork + oystertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,255 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).