Why it works: Vinegar and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,844 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Boiled Pike with Caper Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean the pike by removing the intestines from a small cut near the gills.
Fasten the head and tail of the fish together to form a circle.
Place the fish on a drainer in a fish kettle or tie it in a cloth for boiling.
Boil and serve
Cover the fish with cold water and add salt and vinegar.
Boil gently until a fin can be easily pulled out.
Dish the fish carefully without breaking it and serve with caper sauce.
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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Vinegar + saucetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,844 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pike
- The main fish, whose firm flesh holds its shape when gently poached.
- Vinegar
- Adds a little acidity to the poaching water, sharpening the flavour of the mild fish.
The step that matters
Boil gently. Boiling vigorously breaks the delicate flesh apart and can leave it dry and ragged. A gentle simmer cooks the fish evenly so it stays whole and moist.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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