Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
To Boil Gurnards
Ingredients
Directions
Cut off all the fins and remove the gills from the gurnards.
Empty and clean the fish thoroughly, washing the insides well.
In a pot, bring hot salted water to a boil.
Gently add the gurnards and boil for 20 to 30 minutes.
Serve with anchovy sauce or a mixture of parsley and butter with chili vinegar, lemon juice, or caper pickle.
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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Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Anchovy + parsleytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,702 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
Swap the parsley
The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (anchovy, sauce, butter, vinegar):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Garlicfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against anchovy, sauce, butter, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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