Name: Fish Sauce
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon anchovy juice; 1 tablespoon soy sauce; 2 tablespoons mushroom catsup; ¼ pound melted butter

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fish Sauce

Ingredients

1 tablespoon anchovy juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons mushroom catsup
¼ pound melted butter

Directions

Mix the anchovy juice, soy sauce, and mushroom catsup in a bowl.
Stir in the melted butter until well combined.
Serve warm in a sauce tureen.

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.

Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,697 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Anchovy + mushroomtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together706 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Anchovy juice: Adds a salty, savoury depth that gives the sauce its characteristic fishy flavour.
Soy sauce: Contributes salt and savoury umami notes that round out the sauce.
Mushroom catsup: Provides concentrated savoury, earthy flavour from mushrooms.
Melted butter: Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the sauce.

“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.