Name: Fish
Ingredients: fish; coarse sea salt; thin slices of pork; sauce (optional)

Why it works: Fish and pork work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 668 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Fish

Ingredients

fish
coarse sea salt
thin slices of pork
sauce (optional)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Season the fish well with coarse sea salt.
Place thin slices of pork over the fish for basting.
If desired, prepare a sauce to bake with the fish.
Bake the fish on a platter in the middle of the oven for one hour, or longer if the fish is very large.

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.

Fish + porktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together668 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,487 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pork + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,666 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).