Name: Petite Fish Balls
Ingredients: fish ball mixture; deep fat for frying; tartare sauce; tomato sauce; white sauce

Why it works: Sauce and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,469 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Petite Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Shape the fish ball mixture into balls the size of a marble.
Fry the balls in a basket in deep fat until golden brown.
Drain on soft paper.
Serve with tartare, tomato, or white sauce.

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.

Sauce + tomatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fish + tomatotop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together213 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hepten-3-one (metal).
Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,487 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).