Name: To Dress Haddocks
Ingredients: large haddocks; coarse sea salt; flour; 1 egg, beaten; bread crumbs; hot dripping or lard; parsley for garnish; oyster sauce or melted butter for serving

Why it works: Flour and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,675 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Dress Haddocks

Ingredients

Directions

Clean and wash the haddocks thoroughly.
Soak them in coarse sea salt overnight for better firmness.
Wash and dry the haddocks, then cut off the head, tail, and fins.
Carefully skin the haddocks without tearing the flesh.
Cut the flesh from the bones and divide each side into two pieces.
Dust the pieces with flour, dip them in the beaten egg, and coat with bread crumbs.
Heat enough dripping or lard in a frying pan to cover the fish.
Test the fat's heat by dipping a slice of bread; it should turn light brown.
Fry the fish, turning carefully to brown both sides.
Once cooked, drain the fish on a rack for a few minutes.
Serve garnished with parsley and accompanied by oyster sauce or melted butter.

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.

Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,545 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

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

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, flour, egg, bread, oyster):

Capersfits better
Nutmegfits about as well
Parsleythe original
Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, flour, egg, bread, oyster. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.