Name: A Most Refined, Exquisite Sauce Fok Boiled Fish
Ingredients: ½ cup fresh butter; 1½ tablespoons chopped parsley; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 pinch white pepper; juice of 2 lemons; optional: 1 tablespoon vinegar; optional: 1 teaspoon mixed mustard

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

A Most Refined, Exquisite Sauce Fok Boiled Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Cream the butter until smooth.
Beat in the salt, white pepper, and lemon juice.
Add the chopped parsley and mix well.
If desired, stir in vinegar and mixed mustard before serving.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Parsley + mustardtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,588 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Lemon + mustardtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,816 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Parsley + white peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,451 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Provides the fat that gives the sauce its rich, smooth body and mouthfeel.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances its flavour.
Parsley: Adds a fresh, herbal aroma that lifts the sauce.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, white pepper, lemon, vinegar):

Shallotfits better
Carrotfits about as well
Chivefits about as well
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, white pepper, lemon, vinegar. 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.