Name: To Dress Fish a Second Time
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons bread crumbs; 2 eggs; 2 ounces butter; 1 teaspoon essence of anchovy; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon cayenne; coarse sea salt to taste; cold boiled fish, flaked

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Dress Fish a Second Time

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Flake the cold boiled fish and remove any bones.
In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs, eggs, butter, essence of anchovy, pepper, cayenne, and salt, then mix the ingredients well with the flaked fish.

Cook

Steam the mixture until heated through.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Anchovy + fishtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together637 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,260 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).