Name: Fried Fish
Ingredients: Fresh-water fish; Coarse sea salt; Eggs; Bread crumbs; Lard or dripping; Horse-radish; Parsley; Lemon

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fried Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Clean the fish thoroughly and soak it in a strong saltwater solution or scald it to remove any muddy smell.
Dry the fish and wrap it in a soft cloth.
Wet the fish with an egg, then sprinkle with fine bread crumbs. Repeat for a better appearance.
Heat a large quantity of lard or dripping in a thick-bottomed frying pan until boiling hot.
Plunge the fish into the hot fat and fry until it turns a fine brown yellow.
If the fish is done before achieving the right color, move the pan to the side of the fire.
Drain the fish on a sieve or the underside of a dish to remove excess grease.
Garnish with horse-radish, parsley, and lemon before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together529 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Radish + parsleytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together120 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Radish + lemontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together174 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 (fish, egg, bread, horse, parsley, lemon):

Shallotfits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Radishthe original
Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, bread, horse, parsley, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.