Name: To Broil Fish
Ingredients: small fish; large fish; salt; pepper; butter; tartar sauce; tomato sauce; curry sauce; lemon slices

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Broil Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Cut off the head and tail of small fish and split them down the back.
Cut large fish into 1-inch strips.
Thoroughly clean and dry the fish with a towel.
Season oily fish with salt and pepper; use plenty of butter for dry fish.
Grease the broiler well and place the fish inside.
Broil for 5 to 20 minutes, depending on thickness.
Remove the fish carefully to a platter without breaking.
Spread with more butter and serve with tartar, tomato, or curry sauce.
Garnish with slices of lemon.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,592 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, butter, sauce, lemon):

Capsicumfits about as well
Shallotfits about as well
Asparagusfits about as well
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, butter, sauce, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.