Why it works: Garlic and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
Fish Salad a L'espagnol
Ingredients
Directions
Rub a bowl with garlic.
Line the bottom of the bowl with lettuce leaves.
Arrange a layer of boiled fish pieces in the bowl.
Top the fish with shredded sweet peppers.
Add stoned olives and sliced hard-boiled eggs on top.
Serve with French dressing.
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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Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,665 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,580 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Lettuce + garlictop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,078 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,090 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, lettuce, pepper, olive, egg):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Garlicthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, lettuce, pepper, olive, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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