Why it works: Fish and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,889 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Steaming Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Put a saucepan three-quarters full of water over the fire.
Lay small fish flat or fold fillets with skin inside on a greased tin plate.
Squeeze lemon juice over the fillets.
Cover with greased paper and a second plate.
Place on top of a saucepan of boiling water.
Steam for 10 minutes.
Reverse plates and steam for another 10 minutes.
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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Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,889 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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