Name: Crimp Fish
Ingredients: small fish; water; coarse sea salt; egg; bread crumbs; lard or dripping; horse-radish; parsley; lemon

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Crimp Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Put crimp fish into boiling water.
Add a little cold water to check the heat and simmer for a few minutes.
Check if the fish is ready by seeing if it leaves the bone.
Remove the fish immediately to avoid it becoming woolly.
Set the fish-plate over the kettle to keep warm and cover with a clean cloth.
For frying, wrap the cleaned fish in a cloth and dry it well.
Wet the fish with an egg and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Repeat the egg and crumb process for better appearance.
Heat lard or dripping in a thick-bottomed frying pan until boiling hot.
Plunge the fish into the hot fat and fry until golden brown.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together529 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Radish + parsleytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together120 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Radish + lemontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together174 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

Swap the radish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, bread, horse, parsley, lemon):

Shallotfits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Radishthe original
Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, bread, horse, parsley, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.