Name: Scalloped Fish
Ingredients: 1 pint milk; 2 tablespoons corn starch or flour; 1 small onion, finely sliced; 1 sprig parsley, minced; 1 egg-sized piece of butter; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon white pepper; Cold fresh fish or salt codfish, minced; Cracker or bread crumbs

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scalloped Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Remove all bones from the cold fish or salt codfish and mince it finely.
In a saucepan, heat 1 pint of milk over boiling water. Add the onion, parsley, butter, salt, and white pepper.
Stir in the corn starch or flour mixed with a little cold milk and let it boil, then remove from heat.
Butter the sides and bottom of a serving dish. Layer minced fish, cream mixture, and cracker or bread crumbs, repeating until the dish is full.
Finish with a layer of cracker or bread crumbs on top to prevent scorching.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + parsleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together943 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + fishtop 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

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, corn, onion, parsley, egg, butter, fish):

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
Thymefits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, corn, onion, parsley, egg, butter, fish. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.