Why it works: Asparagus and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 203 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Broiled Shad
Ingredients
Directions
Grease the bars of the broiler.
Place the shad on the broiler and cook over a clear fire slowly.
Baste the fish with melted butter when the flesh side is turned uppermost.
Serve with asparagus or peas and sliced cucumber as a salad.
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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Asparagus + cucumbertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together203 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + asparagustop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,026 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + cucumbertop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,185 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shad
- Is the main fish that is cooked and served as the dish's centerpiece.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat and moisture to the flesh while it broils, helping keep it from drying out.
The step that matters
Cook slowly over a clear fire. Shad is a fatty, delicate fish that can dry out or scorch on the outside before the flesh cooks through. Slow, even heat from a clear fire cooks it gently, and basting with butter helps keep the surface moist.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, asparagus):
- Leekfits better
- Chivefits better
- Potatofits better
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, asparagus. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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