Name: Whitebait, Greenwich Style
Ingredients: Lard (for frying); Brown bread; Butter; Whitebait fish

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Whitebait, Greenwich Style

Ingredients

Lard (for frying)
Brown bread
Butter
Whitebait fish

Directions

Cut the brown bread in halves.
Place the bread in a wicker sieve to remove excess flour.
Heat enough lard in a frying pan to nearly fill it when boiling.
When the fat is boiling, add the fish a few at a time.
Remove the fish before they begin to brown and add more.
Drain the fish on blotting paper before the fire.
Serve the fish on a hot dish, piled high in the center.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).