Name: Fish Gravy
Ingredients: fish bones; head and tails of fish; 1 flounder or eel (optional); 1 onion; pepper; coarse sea salt; sweet herbs; wine or other sauce

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Remove all bones from the fish and cut off the head and tails.
If needed, add a flounder or eel.
Stew the fish parts with an onion, pepper, salt, and sweet herbs.
Strain the mixture and thicken it to a cream-like consistency.
Flavor with a slight addition of wine or another sauce.

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.

Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + winetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,066 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Fish + oniontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + winetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,784 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,948 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).