Name: Fish Stock
Ingredients: fish bones and skin; 1 pint water; 1 pint milk; 1 shallot; 1 bay leaf; 1 blade of mace; 6 peppercorns

Why it works: Fish and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,432 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Fish Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer fish bones and skin, water, milk, shallot, bay leaf, mace, and peppercorns together for 10 minutes.
Strain the mixture to obtain the stock.

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.

Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Milk + macetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,346 recipes

Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).
Fish + shallottop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together174 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + macetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,257 recipes

Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
Milk + shallottop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together458 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish bones and skin: Release gelatin and savoury fish flavour into the liquid as they simmer.
Milk: Adds richness and a creamy body to the stock.