Why it works: Bread and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,260 recipes. Both carry hexanol, which smells green, fruity. The science ↓
Lamprey, Baked
Ingredients
Directions
Rub the lamprey well with coarse sea salt, then wash it in warm water.
Remove the cartilage and strings from the back.
Fill the body with the prepared farce and sew it up securely.
Wrap the fish in 2 or 3 layers of buttered or greased paper.
Cover the fish with hot water and boil gently for 20 minutes.
Drain and dry the fish well.
Place it in a baking dish with melted butter or fat and baste well.
Bake gently for about 30 minutes, basting frequently.
Remove the skin, brush the fish with beaten egg, and coat lightly with bread crumbs.
Bake for an additional 20 minutes or until nicely browned.
Serve garnished with sliced lemon and the sauce in a tureen.
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.
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Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,260 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
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Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,330 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Anchovy + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,080 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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
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