Name: Broiled Fish
Ingredients: whole fish or fish steaks; melted butter (optional for dry fish); coarse sea salt; black pepper; parsley (for garnish); lemon (for garnish); potato roses (for garnish)

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 ↓

Broiled Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish for cooking; remove bones if using whole fish.
If the fish is dry, brush it with melted butter and season with salt and pepper.
Heat and grease a broiler, then place the fish inside.
Sear the flesh side first, cooking over moderate heat and turning 3 to 4 times.
Cook for about 6 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish.
Serve garnished with parsley, lemon, and potato roses.

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).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, pepper, parsley, lemon, rose):

Carrotfits about as well
Potatothe original
Capsicumfits about as well
Spinachfits about as well

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