Name: Baked Fish
Ingredients: 1 fish (3-4 pounds); 1 heaping tablespoon coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon black pepper; 2 onions, sliced; 1 large lemon, juiced; 4 thin slices of pork; 1 tablespoon melted butter; Lard (if not using pork); Brown paper (if not using pork)

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Baked Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Season the fish inside and out with salt and pepper.
Place the fish on a large dish with sliced onions and sprinkle with lemon juice.
Cover and set aside for 1 hour.

Bake and serve

Lay the fish in a baking pan with 4 slices of pork underneath and 3 slices on top.
Pour melted butter over the fish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.
Serve hot, garnished with lemon quarters and parsley.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Fish + porktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together668 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish: Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through gently in the oven.
Pork: Slices laid beneath and over the fish add fat that bastes the flesh as it bakes.
Butter: Melted butter coats the fish, adding richness and promoting gentle browning.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish.
Onions: Sliced onions add aroma and sweetness as they soften under the fish.