Name: Plaice a LA Maitre D'hotel
Ingredients: Fillets of Plaice; Maitre d'Hotel Sauce; Salt; Pepper; Lemon Juice; Butter

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,039 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Wash and dry the fillets of plaice.
Fold the fillets into a fichu shape and place them on a buttered baking tray.
Cover with greased paper and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.
Pour the Maitre d'Hotel Sauce over the fillets and garnish with cut lemon and parsley.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together27,039 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sauce + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together15,317 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together41,197 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Pepper + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together85,512 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Sauce + peppertop 17% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together15,299 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 15,317 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, pepper, butter):

Lemonthe original
Mangoabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).