Name: Morue a LA Bonne Femme
Ingredients: 12 potatoes; Salt cod, enough for 6 persons; 12 onions; ½ lb. butter; 1 oz. flour; a little milk

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,023 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Morue a LA Bonne Femme

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and peel the potatoes and onions.
Cut the salt cod into pieces measuring 2x3 inches.
Layer the potatoes at the bottom of a stewpan.
Add the onions on top of the potatoes.
Place the pieces of salt cod on top of the onions.
Melt the butter and mix with the flour and a little milk to create a sauce.
Pour the sauce over the layered ingredients in the stewpan.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, flour, milk):

Chivebetter flavor fit
Leekbetter flavor fit
Asparagusbetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, flour, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).