Name: Poached Sea Trout with Crushed New Potatoes, Parmesan & Rocket Salad
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 4 fillets sea trout (or use salmon); 8 large new potatoes (Jersey Royals or Charlottes are best); 12 quail eggs or 4 hen's eggs; 300g French beans , topped and tailed; olive oil; 24 cherry tomatoes , halved (if you have time, cook these gently in olive oil for a few minutes with some rock salt and a little crushed garlic); 24 black olives , pitted; 1 banana shallot or 2 ordinary shallots, finely chopped (save the trimmings for the court bouillon); a few sprigs thyme; 12 anchovies (pickled ones are particularly good for this, deli counters usually serve them loose); 4 handfuls rocket; Parmesan shavings; a handful basil leaves; a sprig thyme; 1 lemon ½ sliced and ½ saved for the dressing; white wine vinegar; ½ tbsp coriander seeds , crushed; ½ tbsp white peppercorns; 1 garlic clove , crushed; 2 star anise; 1 bay leaf

Why it works: Olive and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

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 + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Potato + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,517 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Beans + olivetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,470 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Potato + beanstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Cherry tomato + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together12 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sea trout, potato, quail, beans, olive, cherry tomato, garlic):

Avocadofits better
Limefits better
Lemonfits better
Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sea trout, potato, quail, beans, olive, cherry tomato, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Salmon	100g cooked	208
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Banana	1 medium (118g)	105
Cherry	1 cup (138g)	87
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Shallot	1 tbsp minced (10g)	7
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Olive	1 large (4g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Sea Trout	not in our table	0
Quail	not in our table	0
French Bean	not in our table	0
Coriander	not in our table	0
Seed	not in our table	0
Star Anise	not in our table	0

Poached Sea Trout with Crushed New Potatoes, Parmesan & Rocket Salad