Name: To Make Store Fish-sauce
Ingredients: 1 pint red port wine (Burgundy or claret is better); 15 anchovies, chopped; ½ cup port wine vinegar; 1 stick horseradish, scraped; 2 onions, chopped; 1 handful parsley, chopped; 2 teaspoons lemon-thyme leaves; 2 bay leaves; nutmeg, to taste; 6 blades mace, roughly pounded; 9 cloves; 1 small teaspoon black pepper, bruised; a few grains cochineal (optional, for color)

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,973 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,907 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies: Break down during simmering to provide the savory, umami depth that defines the sauce.
Red port wine: Provides liquid and a rich, fruity, sweet-tart backbone to the sauce.
Port wine vinegar: Adds acidity that helps extract flavor from the anchovies and keeps the sauce bright.
Onions: Contribute sweetness and aromatic body as they cook down into the liquid.
Horseradish: Adds sharp, pungent heat that gives the sauce its bite.
Cloves: Contribute warm, aromatic spice notes that round out the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly until the anchovy bones dissolve. Gentle heat lets the bones soften and break down fully into the liquid. Vigorous boiling can scorch the sugars and make the sauce harsh or cloudy, so a slow simmer gives a smooth, well-extracted result.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, vinegar, horseradish, parsley, lemon, thyme, nutmeg):

Shallotfits better
Mustardfits better
Turnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, vinegar, horseradish, parsley, lemon, thyme, nutmeg. 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.

To Make Store Fish-sauce