Name: Creamed Fish Served in Mashed Potato Case
Ingredients: mashed potatoes; 1 egg yolk; creamed fish of your choice

Why it works: Potato and fish work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 134 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Creamed Fish Served in Mashed Potato Case

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

mashed potatoes
1 egg yolk
creamed fish of your choice

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line a baking dish with mashed potatoes.
Brush the mashed potatoes with the beaten egg yolk.
Bake in the oven until browned.
Serve the creamed fish in the potato case.

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.

Potato + fishtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together134 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Egg + fishtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,782 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,978 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).