Name: Kingfish Saute with Fine Herbs
Ingredients: 3 kingfish; flour; butter; juice of 1 lemon; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; 1 tablespoon chopped chives; 1 tablespoon chopped chervil; 1 tablespoon chopped tarragon; slices of lemon for garnish

Why it works: Chervil and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Kingfish Saute with Fine Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the heads and tails from the kingfish.
Split the fish in half and remove the bones.
Dip the fish in flour and fry in butter until cooked.
In the butter used for cooking, add lemon juice and chopped herbs.
Pour the herb mixture over the fish and garnish with lemon slices.

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.

Chervil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together824 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Chive + cherviltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together370 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,563 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Chive + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together589 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).