Name: Cod Sounds Broiled
Ingredients: cod sounds; coarse sea salt; flour; butter; white pepper; catsup; soy sauce; cayenne pepper

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 122,858 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, soy, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Boil the cod sounds in water until nearly cold.
Rub them with coarse sea salt and remove the black skin.
Boil them again in hot water, then drain.
Dust with flour and rub with butter.
Season with white pepper and salt, then broil them.
In melted butter, mix catsup, soy sauce, and a little cayenne pepper, heat, and pour over the broiled cod sounds.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together122,858 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + saucetop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together15,317 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
White pepper + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,478 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Butter + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together85,512 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Flour + peppertop 13% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together49,477 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sauce, pepper):

Parsleybetter flavor fit
Capersbetter flavor fit
Nutmegbetter flavor fit
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sauce, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).