Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Salt Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the sauce
Remove the skin and bones from the cooked fish and place it in a clean saucepan.
Melt the butter with water and flour over low heat in a separate pan.
Add pepper, salt, and minced parsley to the butter mixture.
Finish and serve
Heat the fish slowly in the sauce, stirring until well mixed.
Just before serving, add lemon juice or chili vinegar to the fish.
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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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Forms the base of the sauce and carries flavor, giving it richness.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and water into a light sauce that coats the fish.
- Lemon juice or chili vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter sauce just before serving.
The step that matters
Heating the fish slowly in the sauce. Gentle heat keeps the already cooked fish tender and prevents it from toughening or drying out, while the flour-thickened sauce stays smooth rather than breaking or scorching.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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