Why it works: Olive and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,164 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: fish
Directions
Prepare the broth
Put a saucepan of water on the fire and add sliced onion, bay leaf, garlic, cloves, salt, and pepper.
Cut off the heads of the fish.
Boil the fish heads in the pan, then strain the liquid.
Make the stew
In a larger stewpan, heat olive oil and chopped onion.
Add the fish cut into slices, parsley, chopped garlic, sliced lemon, tomato puree, salt, pepper, and powdered saffron.
Moisten with olive oil and white wine, then cover with the strained liquid and boil over high heat.
Serve
Serve with the fish in a separate dish, garnished with the seasoning ingredients.
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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Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,164 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together29,030 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + saffrontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together538 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Garlic + tomatotop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together14,075 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish (in the method)
- Forms the body of the dish, releasing flavor into the broth as it cooks.
- Olive oil
- Carries fat-soluble flavors from the aromatics and saffron through the stew.
- White wine
- Adds acidity that brightens the broth and balances the richness of the fish.
- Tomato puree
- Adds body, sweetness and acidity to the broth.
- Garlic
- Contributes pungent aroma that mellows as it simmers in the broth.
- Powdered saffron
- Gives the broth its golden color and a distinctive aroma.
The step that matters
Boil over high heat after adding the strained liquid. Vigorous boiling with fish, wine and tomato can break delicate fish apart and emulsify the oil unevenly, so the cook should watch the heat closely and keep the fish intact.
Flavor stand-ins for the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, garlic, pepper, olive, lemon, tomato, saffron):
- Corianderbetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Basilbetter flavor fit
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, garlic, pepper, olive, lemon, tomato, saffron. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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