Name: Sturgeon, Broiled When Fresh
Ingredients: sturgeon; butter; grated nutmeg; chopped parsley; buttered paper

Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Sturgeon, Broiled When Fresh

Ingredients

Directions

Slice the sturgeon like salmon.
Mix butter, grated nutmeg, and chopped parsley together.
Spread the mixture over the fish.
Wrap the fish in buttered paper.
Broil and serve like salmon.

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.

Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Sturgeon + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together237 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sturgeon + parsleytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together137 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).