Why it works: Capers and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,550 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Stuffing for the Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Rub the butter into the cracker crumbs.
Wet with onion juice.
Mix in the minced capers, parsley, salt, and pepper.
In a frying pan, heat dripping and cook the minced onion until soft.
Wet the bread crumbs with hot milk and stir into the frying pan.
Season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice, and beat to a mush.
Remove from heat and whip in the yolk of the raw egg.
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.
-
Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,550 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Onion + caperstop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,381 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, capers, parsley, pepper, bread, milk, egg):
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, capers, parsley, pepper, bread, milk, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
More fish stuffing recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Brown Bread461 recipes
White Bread80 recipes
Bread Omelette60 recipes
Oatmeal Bread51 recipes