Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Fish Soup, Simple
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Stew the bones and head of the turbot in the fish boiling liquid for 2 hours.
Strain the soup and return it to the pot.
Finish the soup
Add rice, onion, and mace, then simmer for 30 minutes.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Stir in the boiling milk before serving.
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.
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Clove + macetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turbot bones and head
- Release gelatin and flavour into the broth as they stew for a long time.
- Rice
- Thickens the soup slightly as its starch softens during simmering.
- Milk
- Adds richness and a mellow, creamy body to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Stirring in the boiling milk before serving. Milk can curdle or separate if it is overheated or boiled hard, so it should be added at the end and kept gently hot rather than left to boil in the soup.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, fish, rice, onion, clove, pepper, milk):
- Nutmegfits better
- Turmericfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, fish, rice, onion, clove, pepper, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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