Name: To Boil Trout — Izaak Walton's Receipt
Ingredients: trout; hard stale beer; vinegar; white wine; water; coarse sea salt; lemon rind

Why it works: Beer and white wine share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 57 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

To Boil Trout — Izaak Walton's Receipt

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and dry the trout with a clean towel.
Empty and wipe the inside of the trout very clean, but do not wash it again.
Make three shallow cuts on one side of the trout down to the bone.
In a clean kettle, combine enough hard stale beer, vinegar, white wine, and water to cover the fish.
Add a generous amount of coarse sea salt and the rind of a lemon to the kettle.

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.

Beer + white winetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together57 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,832 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Vinegar + white winetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,776 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Beer + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together302 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,334 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).