Name: Fillets of Cod a LA Normande
Ingredients: Fillets of cod; Butter; Onions; Mushrooms; White wine; Cream; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; Parsley

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fillets of Cod a LA Normande

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Melt butter in a pan and sauté chopped onions and mushrooms until soft.
Add white wine and let it simmer for a few minutes.
Place the cod fillets in a baking dish and pour the onion and mushroom mixture over them.
Drizzle cream on top and season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the fish is cooked through.
Garnish with chopped parsley before serving.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,765 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, mushroom, white wine, cream, pepper, parsley):

Shallotfits better
Potatofits about as well
Spinachfits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mushroom, white wine, cream, pepper, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.