Name: Water Souchet of Crimped Salmon
Ingredients: fresh salmon, sliced ½ inch thick; cold spring water; shredded parsley roots, boiled; picked parsley leaves; minionette pepper; coarse sea salt; essence of fish (from inferior salmon pieces or flounders)

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Water Souchet of Crimped Salmon

Ingredients

fresh salmon, sliced ½ inch thick
cold spring water
shredded parsley roots, boiled
picked parsley leaves
minionette pepper
coarse sea salt
essence of fish (from inferior salmon pieces or flounders)

Directions

Keep the salmon slices in cold spring water for a couple of hours to firm them up.
In a stewpan, combine the salmon, boiled parsley roots, the water they were boiled in, parsley leaves, pepper, and salt.
Moisten with essence of fish.
Cook gently until the salmon is done.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Salmon + fishtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,078 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Parsley + fishtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,341 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,948 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Salmon + parsleytop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,516 recipes

Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).