Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,036 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare
Remove the gills from the fresh herrings.
Make the maître d’hôtel butter
Melt butter in a pan and add chopped parsley.
Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper to the butter mixture.
Cook and serve
Cook the herrings in the butter mixture until done.
Serve hot, garnished with additional 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,036 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + parsleytop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together28,543 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Butter + lemontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,197 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh herrings
- Provide the main fish that is cooked through in the butter sauce.
- Butter
- Carries the flavours and gives a rich, moist coating to the fish as it cooks.
- Parsley
- Adds fresh, herbal aroma that brightens the rich butter.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that cuts through the richness of the butter and fish.
The step that matters
Cooking the herrings in the butter mixture until done. Fish protein sets and turns opaque as it heats, and overcooking makes it dry and firm. Stopping once the flesh is opaque and flakes easily keeps it moist.
“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.
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