Name: Salted Cod-Fish
Ingredients: salt cod-fish; water; potatoes; beets; carrots; salt pork or butter sauce

Why it works: Potato and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Salted Cod-Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the salt cod-fish in a pan of cold water with the skin side up to extract the salt.
In the morning, place the fish back in the same position and cover with water.
Bring the water to a boil, then cover tightly and reduce the heat to cook for 5 to 6 hours.
Serve the cooked fish with potatoes, beets, carrots, and either salt fried pork or butter sauce.

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.

Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Fish + porktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together668 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together134 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Carrot + porktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,772 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).