Name: Salt Fish
Ingredients: Salt fish; Eggs (for egg sauce); Parsneps (parsnips)

Why it works: Fish and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,487 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Salt Fish

Ingredients

Salt fish
Eggs (for egg sauce)
Parsneps (parsnips)

Directions

Place the fish kettle near the fire and heat it very slowly.
Keep the kettle just on the point of simmering for 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the fish's weight.
Remove any scum that forms on the surface carefully.
Serve the fish on a hot napkin, accompanied by egg sauce and boiled parsnips, and sprinkle with chopped eggs if desired.

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.

Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,487 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,782 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sauce + parsniptop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together156 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fish + parsniptop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together57 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Egg + parsniptop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together442 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).