Name: Baked Fish Garnished with Parsley
Ingredients: 1 whole fish; parsley for garnish; sauce or folded napkin for serving

Why it works: Fish and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,341 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Baked Fish Garnished with Parsley

Ingredients

1 whole fish
parsley for garnish
sauce or folded napkin for serving

Directions

Trim the fins and tail of the fish.
Make several deep cuts on each side of the fish.
Place the fish on a little sauce or a folded napkin on a hot dish.
Garnish with parsley.
To serve, cut along the back fin and down to the middle of the under part of the fish.
Lift off the cut portions with a fish knife and serve.
After one side is served, flip the fish to serve the other side.

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 + parsleytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,341 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,487 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,693 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).