Name: Baked Black Bass
Ingredients: 8 medium onions, finely chopped; 4 cups bread crumbs; 2 tablespoons butter; plenty of black pepper; coarse sea salt to taste; anchovy sauce (or tomatoes as a substitute); 1 cup pork, finely chopped (if using tomatoes)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,232 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Black Bass

Ingredients

8 medium onions, finely chopped
4 cups bread crumbs
2 tablespoons butter
plenty of black pepper
coarse sea salt to taste
anchovy sauce (or tomatoes as a substitute)
1 cup pork, finely chopped (if using tomatoes)

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.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the chopped onions, bread crumbs, butter, black pepper, coarse sea salt, and anchovy sauce until well combined.
Stuff the fish with the mixture and pour any remaining mixture over the top.
Sprinkle a little red pepper on top before baking.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,013 recipes

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

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together18,214 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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, pepper, anchovy, pork, tomato):

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Potatobetter flavor fit
Onionthe original
Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, pepper, anchovy, pork, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).