Name: Grilled Fish
Ingredients: Fish; Spiced olive oil; Flour; Bay leaves or fragrant herbs (optional); Tomato sauce, caper sauce, or anchovy sauce (for serving)

Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Grilled Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Dry the fish thoroughly.
Dip the fish into spiced olive oil.
Dust the fish with flour.
Broil the fish for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on thickness.
Optionally, broil the fish between branches of bay or fragrant herbs to prevent scorching.
Serve with sauce poured over or under the fish.

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.

Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Fish + olivetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together279 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fish + tomatotop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together213 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hepten-3-one (metal).
Olive + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,871 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + tomatotop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,065 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).