Name: Cod, Curried
Ingredients: 4 egg whites; 3 egg yolks; ½ pint milk; ½ pint cream; 1 teaspoon vanilla essence; cake crumbs; butter; sugar; coconut

Why it works: Vanilla and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cod, Curried

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Simmer the coconut in the milk until tender, then let it cool completely.
Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.
Stir in the egg yolks one at a time.
Add the cake crumbs, cream, vanilla, and the prepared coconut and milk.
Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a pie dish lined with pastry.
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until set.
Top with the remaining whisked egg whites and return to the oven until the meringue hardens and colors slightly.
Serve warm.

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.

Vanilla + coconuttop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,294 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, cream, vanilla, butter, sugar):

Strawberryfits about as well
Coconutthe original
Figfits about as well
Peachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, cream, vanilla, butter, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.