Name: Fish Paste
Ingredients: Yarmouth bloaters; smoked salmon; shrimps; prawns; lobsters; anchovies; spices; very fresh butter; clarified butter

Why it works: Shrimp and lobster work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 403 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Fish Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the flesh from the dressed fish and carefully bone it, removing skin and fins.
Season the fish flesh generously with spices.
Pound the seasoned fish in a mortar until smooth.
Add a small amount of very fresh butter and mix until it forms a smooth paste.
Press the paste into pots and cover with a layer of clarified butter.
Seal the pots tightly to keep air out if storing for a long time.

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.

Shrimp + lobstertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together403 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,931 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together819 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Salmon + lobstertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together313 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).