Name: Tinned-fish
Ingredients: tinned salmon or fresh herring; tartare sauce or mayonnaise; garnish (such as olives, capers, sliced gherkins, rolled anchovies)

Why it works: Olive and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,688 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Tinned-fish

Ingredients

tinned salmon or fresh herring
tartare sauce or mayonnaise
garnish (such as olives, capers, sliced gherkins, rolled anchovies)

Directions

Drain the tinned fish on a sieve to remove excess juices.
Select nicely sized pieces and place them on a serving dish.
Garnish with olives, capers, sliced gherkins, and rolled anchovies.
Serve the tartare or mayonnaise sauce separately, chilled.
For a hot dish, gently warm the fish in a good sauce or wrap in oiled paper and broil or fry briefly.

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.

Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,688 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Sauce + caperstop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together678 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Salmon + caperstop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together458 recipes

Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
Salmon + olivetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,942 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Salmon + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,765 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).