Name: Modern Cookery
Ingredients: small mackerel; fennel sauce; gooseberry sauce; plain melted butter

Why it works: Fennel and gooseberry share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

small mackerel
fennel sauce
gooseberry sauce
plain melted butter

Directions

Prepare

Clean and prepare the small mackerel.

Cook and serve

Cook small mackerel for 10 to 15 minutes or large mackerel for 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve on a napkin with fennel or gooseberry sauce and plain melted butter.

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.

Fennel + gooseberrytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Gooseberry + buttertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together70 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Sauce + gooseberrytop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together44 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fennel + saucetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together181 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mackerel: Provides the main protein and rich flesh that is cooked through and served whole.
Fennel sauce: Adds a light aniseed aroma that complements the richness of the oily fish.
Gooseberry sauce: Adds tartness that cuts through the richness of the oily mackerel.
Plain melted butter: Adds moisture and richness to the served fish.