Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Delicious Brandades De Merluche, or Languedoc Ragout of Salt-Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the salted cod in water overnight to remove excess salt.
In a pot, boil the soaked cod until tender, then drain and flake it.
In a skillet, heat olive oil and sauté chopped onion and garlic until soft.
Add diced potatoes and cook until tender.
Stir in the flaked cod, milk, and black pepper, mixing well.
Cook until heated through, then garnish with chopped parsley before serving.
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.
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together29,058 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,665 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Garlic + potatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,517 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, garlic, potato, milk, pepper, parsley):
- Tomatofits better
- Chivefits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against olive, garlic, potato, milk, pepper, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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