Why it works: Capers and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,688 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Sardine Canapes
Ingredients
Directions
Remove oil from sardines and heat them in a sauté pan over low heat.
Season the sardines with Nepaul popper or Oriental seasoning.
Fry crofites in butter until golden.
For cold canapes, let crofites cool, spread with capers butter, and top with sardines.
Sprinkle with chopped olives.
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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Capers + olivetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,688 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Butter + olivetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,887 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,637 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the capers
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, olive):
- Capersthe original
- Thymefits about as well
- Garlicfits less well
- Parsleyfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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