Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Stewed Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the fish and dry it.
Sprinkle the fish with pepper, flour, and salt.
Cook
Fry the onions in a pan until golden.
Add the fish to the pan with the onions and cook until browned.
Pour in the soup stock and let it stew.
Stir in the Harvey Sauce 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.
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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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sauce + flourtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Onion and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 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
What each ingredient does
- Onions
- Soften and sweeten as they fry, forming the flavour base of the stew.
- Cod, bass, or halibut
- Provides the main protein, which firms and flakes as it cooks.
- Flour
- Coats the fish and thickens the cooking liquid slightly.
- Soup stock
- Supplies liquid and savoury flavour for the stew.
- Harvey sauce
- Adds concentrated savoury, tangy flavour stirred in near the end.
The step that matters
Browning the fish in the onion pan. Fish that is not dried well releases moisture and steams instead of browning, so it loses surface flavour and can stick. Drying the fish first helps it brown.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, pepper, flour):
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, pepper, flour. 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.
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