Name: Fish Stewed, on Maigre Days
Ingredients: 1 middling lobster, flesh and soft parts beaten; ½ anchovy, beaten; 1 large piece of boiled celery, beaten; 1 hard-boiled egg yolk, beaten; ¼ teaspoon Cayenne pepper; ¼ teaspoon mace; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon white pepper; 2 tablespoons bread crumbs; ⅓ cup oyster liquor; 2 ounces butter, warmed; 2 eggs, beaten

Why it works: Lobster and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 470 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. 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.

Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together470 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,695 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,260 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,330 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, anchovy, celery, egg, pepper, white pepper, bread):

Parsleyfits better
Tarragonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, anchovy, celery, egg, pepper, white pepper, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Fish Stewed, on Maigre Days