Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Boiled Cod
Ingredients
Directions
Place the fish on a dish with fish paper underneath.
Brush the fish with oiled butter.
Garnish with scalloped lemon, grated horseradish, and chopped parsley.
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.
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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Horseradish + parsleytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together562 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Lemon + horseradishtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,155 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the horseradish
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, lemon, parsley):
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Potatofits better
- Horseradishthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, lemon, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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