Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
To Boil Trout
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the trout in a mixture of vinegar, water, and coarse sea salt with a piece of horse-radish.
Serve with white sauce, anchovy sauce, or plain butter.
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.
-
Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together529 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
-
Vinegar + radishtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together508 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Horse + anchovytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together35 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the radish
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, horse, sauce, anchovy, butter):
- Mustardfits about as well
- Radishthe original
- Shallotfits less well
- Capsicumfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, horse, sauce, anchovy, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
More boiled trout recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Horseradish Sauce23 recipes
Horseradish Butter6 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes