Name: Modern Cookery
Ingredients: 2 or more eggs, beaten; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; a little pepper or cayenne; finest bread crumbs; clarified butter

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Securely curl the fish and fasten the tail into the mouth with a thin skewer.
Dip the fish into the beaten eggs seasoned with salt and pepper.
Cover the fish with bread crumbs, then dip it a second time into the egg and crumbs.
Pour clarified butter gently over the fish through a small strainer.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour and 15 minutes, longer if the fish is large.
Do not leave the fish in the oven after it is thoroughly cooked.
Optionally, mix some minced parsley with the bread crumbs for a green hue.
Serve with plain melted butter and brown caper or Dutch 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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).