Name: Baked Halibut
Ingredients: 5 pounds halibut; coarse sea salt; water; butter; 1 cup boiling water; 2 tablespoons browned flour; 1 tablespoon walnut catsup; juice of 1 lemon

Why it works: Walnut and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,149 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Baked Halibut

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

Soak the halibut in cold water with coarse sea salt for 1 hour.
Place the fish in a dripping pan with a little water and butter to taste.

Bake and make the sauce

Bake for 10 minutes per pound.
For the sauce, mix the boiling water with the browned flour and butter until smooth.
Add the walnut catsup and lemon juice to the sauce.
Pour the sauce into a sauce boat after cooking.

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.

Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,149 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,832 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Halibut: Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through to firm, flaky flesh.
Browned flour: Thickens the sauce and adds a toasted, nutty depth of flavor.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that keeps the fish and sauce moist and smooth.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances its flavor.