Name: Norwegian Anchovies
Ingredients: 1 tin of sardines; white pepper; 1 Bombay onion; 1 cinnamon leaf

Why it works: Onion and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,150 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Norwegian Anchovies

Ingredients

1 tin of sardines
white pepper
1 Bombay onion
1 cinnamon leaf

Directions

Open the tin of sardines and remove the fish one by one.
Wipe the sardines free from oil and carefully remove their skins.
Cut each sardine in half lengthwise and dust with white pepper.
If the sardines are too soft, skip the filleting.
In a dry, clean oval earthenware pot, slice the Bombay onion and layer the rings at the bottom with a cinnamon leaf.

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.

Onion + cinnamontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,150 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
White pepper + cinnamontop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together122 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
White pepper + oniontop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,395 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).