Name: Egg Sauce for Boiled Fish
Ingredients: 1 cup thin white sauce; 1 teaspoon chopped parsley; 1 hard boiled egg, chopped fine

Why it works: Parsley and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,765 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Egg Sauce for Boiled Fish

Ingredients

1 cup thin white sauce
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
1 hard boiled egg, chopped fine

Directions

Prepare 1 cup of thin white sauce.
Stir in 1 teaspoon of chopped parsley.
Add 1 hard boiled egg, chopped fine, and mix well.

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.

Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,765 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sauce + parsleytop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,693 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + eggtop 39% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,895 recipes

Sauce and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,895 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Thin white sauce: Forms the creamy base that carries the other flavors and coats the fish.
Hard boiled egg: Adds chopped texture and richness to the sauce.