Name: Lemon Sauce for Fish
Ingredients: ½ pint butter sauce; juice of 1 lemon; 1 lemon, sliced, seeds removed

Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lemon Sauce for Fish

Ingredients

½ pint butter sauce
juice of 1 lemon
1 lemon, sliced, seeds removed

Directions

In a saucepan, combine the butter sauce, lemon juice, and sliced lemon.
Bring the mixture to a boil, allowing the flavors to meld.

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.

Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sauce + lemontop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,598 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Butter sauce: Provides the fat and body that carries the lemon flavor.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances its richness.
Lemon: Contributes aromatic oils and extra citrus flavor as it simmers.