Name: Fillets, Steaks, and Cutlets of Fish Saute
Ingredients: good, sweet dripping or fat from cooked salt pork; olive oil; lemon juice; peppered flour; coarse sea salt

Why it works: Olive and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,922 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Fillets, Steaks, and Cutlets of Fish Saute

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate the fish in olive oil and lemon juice for 1 hour.
Rub the fish with peppered flour and coarse sea salt, then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Heat the fat in a frying pan over medium heat.
Cook the fish until browned on one side, then carefully turn and cook the other side.
Drain off the fat and serve.

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.

Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,922 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Pork + olivetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,716 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Olive + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,871 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pork + lemontop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,786 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).