Name: Fried Fish
Ingredients: fish, cleaned and dried; flour (or breadcrumbs or batter); friture (or oil); sliced lemon or crisp parsley for garnish

Why it works: Fish and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,889 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fried Fish

Ingredients

fish, cleaned and dried
flour (or breadcrumbs or batter)
friture (or oil)
sliced lemon or crisp parsley for garnish

Directions

If the fish is thick, split it open or score it across the fleshy parts.
Dust the fish with flour (or breadcrumbs or batter).
Heat plenty of friture (or oil) in a frying pan until it boils.
Fry the fish in the hot fat until cooked through.
Serve the fried fish on a white napkin folded at the bottom of the dish, garnished with sliced lemon or parsley.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,889 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Fish + flourtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,532 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).