Name: Fish Broiled
Ingredients: various fish (shad, barbel, brill, plaice, Yarmouth bloaters, mackerel, herrings, cod, mullet, haddocks, soles, sprats, whiting, dace, crimped cod, turbot, salmon, or eels); oil; seasoning; fresh beef suet; strong vinegar

Why it works: Fish and beef work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 226 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Fish Broiled

Ingredients

various fish (shad, barbel, brill, plaice, Yarmouth bloaters, mackerel, herrings, cod, mullet, haddocks, soles, sprats, whiting, dace, crimped cod, turbot, salmon, or eels)
oil
seasoning
fresh beef suet
strong vinegar

Directions

Clean the fish thoroughly.
Rub the fish with oil and seasoning.
Wet the fish with strong vinegar and let it sit for a while.
Wipe the fish dry before cooking.
Rub the gridiron with fresh beef suet and heat it until very hot.
Broil the fish on the gridiron over a clear fire until cooked through.

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 + beeftop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together226 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,036 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Beef + vinegartop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,895 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).