Name: Fish Roe
Ingredients: roe; 1 small onion; ¼ teaspoon minced parsley; boiling water; coarse sea salt; 1 beaten egg; cracker crumbs; lard; butter

Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fish Roe

Ingredients

Directions

Place the roe in a saucepan with the onion and parsley.
Cover with boiling water, slightly salted.
Boil for 15 minutes, then set aside in the liquid until completely cold.
Wipe the roe dry, then roll in the beaten egg and cracker crumbs.
Fry in hot lard with a little butter.

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.

Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Roe + eggtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together243 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Roe + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together442 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).