Name: Turbot with Maccaroni in a Gratin
Ingredients: leftover turbot; hot water; good cream sauce; pipe macaroni; bread crumbs; clarified butter

Why it works: Turbot and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 248 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Turbot with Maccaroni in a Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the flesh from the leftover turbot and place it in hot water to separate into flakes.
Combine the turbot flakes with good cream sauce and boiled macaroni, ensuring there is no water in either.
Transfer the mixture to a dish and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Drizzle with clarified butter and add more bread crumbs on top.
Brown gently under a broiler until golden, then serve.

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.

Turbot + saucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together248 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Turbot + creamtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together127 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).