Why it works: Smelt and whiting share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Fried Fish
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the fish by cleaning and cutting it into appropriate sizes.
Dip the fish in milk, melted butter, or beaten eggs.
Coat the fish with flour, bread crumbs, grated cheese, or crushed vermicelli.
Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.
Fry the coated fish until golden brown and cooked through, about 3-5 minutes per side.
Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.
Season with salt before serving.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Smelt + whitingtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together496 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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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