Why it works: White pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,395 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
Norwegian Anchovies
Ingredients
Directions
Open the tin of sardines and remove the fish one by one.
Wipe the sardines free from oil and carefully remove their skins.
Cut each sardine in half lengthwise and dust with white pepper.
Slice the Bombay onion and place it in a dry, clean oval earthenware pot.
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.
-
White pepper + oniontop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,395 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.