Why it works: Clove and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,768 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Boiled Red Snapper, Shrimp Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the cleaned fish in cold water until ready to cook.
In a fish kettle, bring water or stock to a boil with salt, bay leaf, onion, parsley, and vinegar.
Add the fish and cook for about 16 minutes at a simmer.
Remove the fish and peel off the skin from the upper side.
Serve small portions on plates with shrimp sauce and a spoonful of mashed potatoes.
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.
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Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,768 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,901 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (snapper, vinegar, onion, parsley, butter, flour, egg):
- Capersfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Thymefits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against snapper, vinegar, onion, parsley, butter, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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