Name: Frying Fish
Ingredients: small fresh-water fish; butter; ale or milk (optional); 1 egg (optional); finely grated bread-crumbs or fine sifted raspings; clarified dripping or lard; coarse sea salt

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Frying Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and dry the fish with a clean soft cloth.
If using, wet the fish with ale or milk, then shake it in a floured cloth, or beat the egg and spread it over the fish.
Sprinkle the fish with bread-crumbs or raspings.
Heat plenty of clarified dripping or lard in a frying pan until it boils and begins to smoke.
Fry the fish for about 5 minutes until brown on one side, then carefully turn it and fry for another 4-5 minutes until done.
Remove the fish and place it on a drainer, turning it on a soft cloth to dry the fat.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).