Name: Tamarind Fish
Ingredients: any quantity of fish; fine powdered salt; acid tamarinds; vinegar; pounded turmeric; dried pounded chillies; sliced green ginger; cloves of garlic (optional)

Why it works: Turmeric and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Tamarind Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Split the fish down the back and remove the bone. Score the fish as you would for crimping.
Sprinkle fine powdered salt over the fish and let it sit for 1-2 days.
Wash the fish and hang it out in the sun to dry.
Dissolve acid tamarinds in vinegar and strain the liquid.
Cut the fish into small pieces and wrap them with the tamarind mixture, ensuring it is not too liquid.
Place the wrapped fish in a jar and cover it tightly.
Cut the fish into slices about ½ to ¾ inch thick, sprinkle with clean salt, and let the juice drain for 24 hours.
Dry the fish in the sun.
Boil ripe tamarinds in vinegar and extract the pulp.
To every pint of tamarind juice, add 1 tablespoon of pounded turmeric, 2 tablespoons of dried pounded chillies, 4 tablespoons of sliced green ginger, and 4 tablespoons of vinegar.
Mix well and pour over the fish, then cover it.
Let it sit for 2-3 days before using. It does not keep long.

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.

Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,776 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Tamarind + turmerictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together299 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Tamarind + gingertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together325 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Turmeric + clovetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,876 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, tamarind, vinegar, turmeric, ginger, garlic):

Cuminfits better
Cardamomfits better
Corianderfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, tamarind, vinegar, turmeric, ginger, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.