Name: Boiled Fish
Ingredients: sufficient boiling water to cover the fish; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; 2 teaspoons malt vinegar

Why it works: Malt and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 365 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Boiled Fish

Ingredients

sufficient boiling water to cover the fish
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
2 teaspoons malt vinegar

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, enough to cover the fish.
Add 1 tablespoon of coarse sea salt and 2 teaspoons of malt vinegar to the water.
Simmer the fish gently for 20 to 30 minutes, allowing about 10 minutes per pound.
When the skin of the fish looks curdled, it is ready.
Remove the fish from the water and drain well before serving.

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.

Malt + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together365 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,036 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Fish + malttop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).