Name: Black Cod Fish Cakes with Tartar Sauce Recipe
Cook time: 40 min
Yield: 8 fish cakes
Ingredients: 1 cup mayonnaise; 3 tablespoons finely chopped capers; 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice; 2 tablespoons finely chopped dill pickle; 1 tablespoon finely chopped scallion; 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 2 large eggs; 1 medium shallot, medium dice; 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped Italian parsley leaves; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1/4 teaspoon celery seeds; 2 pounds skinless black cod fillet,; and cut into 1-inch pieces; 1/4 cup matzo meal; 2 tablespoons olive oil

Why it works: Capers and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 405 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

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.

Capers + shallottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together405 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Dill + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together669 recipes

Shared aroma: p-mentha-1,3,8-triene (camphor, herbal).
Lemon + dilltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together976 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,550 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (capers, lemon, dill, pepper, egg, shallot, parsley):

Tarragonfits better
Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against capers, lemon, dill, pepper, egg, shallot, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Salmon	100g cooked	208
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Shallot	1 tbsp minced (10g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery Seed	1 stalk (40g)	6
Dill	5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried	4
Capers	1 tbsp (9g) drained	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Black Cod Fish Cakes with Tartar Sauce Recipe