Name: Baked Tuna Fish
Ingredients: 2 eggs; 1 onion, chopped; ½ teaspoon celery seed; ¾ cup milk or water; 1 (7-ounce) can tuna fish; 4 cups bread crumbs; 1½ teaspoons baking powder; 1 green bell pepper, chopped; Butter, size of a walnut

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Tuna Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Mix and bake

In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, onion, celery seed, milk or water, tuna fish, bread crumbs, baking powder, and green bell pepper.
Transfer the mixture to a Pyrex dish and dot the top with butter.
Bake for 30 minutes.

Serve

Serve with tartar sauce or Worcestershire 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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the mixture together and help it set as it bakes.
Bread crumbs: Provide bulk and absorb liquid to give the loaf body.
Baking powder: Releases gas that lifts the mixture so it bakes lighter.
Milk or water: Adds moisture so the mixture stays tender as it bakes.
Tuna fish: Provides the main protein and savory flavor of the dish.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, onion, milk, fish, bread, pepper, butter):

Parsleyfits better
Nutmegfits about as well
Capersfits about as well
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, onion, milk, fish, bread, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.