Name: Cod Pie
Ingredients: 1 dozen large oysters (or substitute with Portuguese, American, or tinned oysters); 3 lemons; scallop shells (or deep oyster shells); potatoes; savoy cabbage; watercress

Why it works: Lemon and watercress match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 579 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cod Pie

Ingredients

1 dozen large oysters (or substitute with Portuguese, American, or tinned oysters)
3 lemons
scallop shells (or deep oyster shells)
potatoes
savoy cabbage
watercress

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Prepare the scallop shells by scouring them clean.
If using fresh oysters, remove the gills and set aside.
If using tinned oysters, drain them and set aside.
Layer the cod and oysters in the prepared shells.
Squeeze lemon juice over the layers.
Bake in the oven until heated through and golden on top.

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.

Lemon + watercresstop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together579 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Potato + watercresstop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together170 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cabbage + watercresstop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together21 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Potato + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together275 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lemon + potatotop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,230 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, lemon, scallop, potato, watercress):

Shallotfits better
Horseradishfits better
Chivefits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, lemon, scallop, potato, watercress. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.