Name: Fish Salad
Ingredients: Goldfish, cut into pieces (1-2 inches square); Coarse sea salt; Finely chopped onions; Juice of 1 lemon; Fresh lettuce, well drained; Parsley leaves, for garnish; Red beet-root, for garnish (optional)

Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 ↓

Fish Salad

Ingredients

Goldfish, cut into pieces (1-2 inches square)
Coarse sea salt
Finely chopped onions
Juice of 1 lemon
Fresh lettuce, well drained
Parsley leaves, for garnish
Red beet-root, for garnish (optional)

Directions

Cut the goldfish into pieces about 1-2 inches square and place them in a deep dish.
Add a little coarse sea salt and finely chopped onions.
Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon over the fish, cover with a plate, and let it marinate for 2 hours.
Drain the fish from the lemon juice and set aside.
Cut the fresh lettuce into pieces and pile it high in the center of a serving dish.
Arrange the fish pieces in a circle around the lettuce.
Pour salad sauce over the lettuce, keeping the fish white.
Garnish with parsley leaves or small pieces of red beet-root.

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,483 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,562 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Lemon + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,559 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).