Name: Cod Sounds, to Broil
Ingredients: Cod sounds; Coarse sea salt; Flour; Brown gravy; Pepper; Soy sauce; Mustard; Butter

Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 15,427 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. 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

Scald the cod sounds in hot water.
Rub them well with coarse sea salt and remove the dirty skin.
Simmer the sounds until tender.
Remove them, coat with flour, and broil until cooked.
In a separate pan, season brown gravy with pepper, coarse sea salt, soy sauce, and mustard.
Bring the gravy to a boil with a bit of flour and butter.
Pour the gravy over the broiled sounds before serving.

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.

Pepper + mustardtop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together15,427 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sauce + mustardtop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together2,120 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together122,858 recipes

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

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together15,317 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + mustardtop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together4,913 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 mustard

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

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Shallotabout as good a flavor fit
Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper, sauce, butter. 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).